I 


LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


M 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  'Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/friendlyvisitingOOrichricli 


FRIENDLY   VISITING  AMONG 
THE    POOR 


'J^^>^ 


FRIENDLY    VISITING    AMONG 
THE    POOR 

A  Handbook  for  Charity  Workers 


BY 


MARY   E.   RICHMOND 

GENERAL  SECRETARY  OF  THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION 
SOCIETY  OF  BALTIMORE 


Ketn  gorft 
THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1903 

All  right*  rturved 


GENERAL 

Copyright,  1899, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  clectrotypcd  January,  1899.    Reprinted  November, 
1899 ;  February,  1903. 


NorijaoolJ  i^reBB 

J,  8.  Gushing  fc  Co.  -  Berwick  k  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

This  little  volume  is  intended  as  a  handbook 
for  those  who  are  beginning  to  do  charitable 
work  in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  whether  as  in- 
dividuals or  as  representatives  of  some  church, 
or  of  some  religious  society,  such  as  the  King's 
Daughters,  the  Epworth  League,  or  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Society.  The  term  "friendly 
visitor"  does  not  apply  to  one  who  aimlessly 
visits  the  poor  for  a  little  while,  without  making 
any  effort  to  improve  their  condition  perma- 
nently or  to  be  a  real  friend  to  them.  Friendly 
visiting,  as  distinguished  from  district  visiting, 
originated  with  the  charity  organization  socie- 
ties, some  of  which  are  indefatigable  in  training 
volunteers  to  do  effective  work  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor.  Though  I  should  be  glad  to  find  that 
my  book  was  of  some  service  to  these  societies, 
it  was  not  prepared  for  their  use  alone,  and  no 

V 

104123 


VI  PREFACE 

mention  is  made,  therefore,  of  the  organization 
of  visitors  into  district  conferences.  For  inex- 
perienced workers,  who  need  leadership  in  their 
charity,  there  can  be  no  better  training  than  the 
meetings  of  a  well-organized  conference  under  a 
capable  chairman,  and  even  the  most  experi- 
enced, by  keeping  in  close  touch  with  such  a 
conference,  can  do  more  effective  work. 

The  suggestions  herein  contained  are  not  to 
be  taken  as  all  applicable  to  the  work  of  any 
one  visitor.  Friendly  visitors  that  tried  to  adopt 
them  all  would  have  to  abandon  their  other  in- 
terests, and  their  other  interests  make  them  more 
useful  friends  to  the  poor.  Like  the  words  in  a 
dictionary,  some  suggestions  will  be  of  service 
to  a  few  workers,  and  others  will  be  found  ap- 
plicable to  the  work  of  many. 

In  addition  to  the  standard  authorities  men- 
tioned under  General  References,  a  list  for  sup- 
plementary reading  will  be  found  at  the  end  of 
each  chapter.  These  lists  are  in  no  sense  a 
bibliography  of  the  subject.  A  handbook  such 
as  this  is  chiefly  useful  in  suggesting  further 
inquiry,  and,  for  beginners,  I  have  thought  best 
to  include  a  number  of   references  out  of   the 


PREFACE  vii 

beaten  track  to  stories   and   magazine  articles 
that  seemed  illustrative  of  the  matter  in  hand. 

It  will  be  seen  that  I  have  borrowed  much  in 
direct  quotation  in  the  following  pages  from 
those  who  have  preceded  me  in  writing  about 
the  poor,  but  my  debt  does  not  end  here.  What- 
ever I  may  be  said  to  know  about  charitable 
work  —  my  whole  point  of  view  and  inspiration 
in  fact — can  be  traced  to  certain  definite  sources. 
To  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society  of  London,  to  Miss  Octavia  Hill, 
Mrs.  Bernard  Bosanquet,  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Loch,  it 
will  be  evident  to  my  readers  that  my  obligation 
is  great.  It  will  be  evident  also  that  I  have  been 
helped  by  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell  and 
other  workers  in  New  York,  who,  against  such 
odds,  are  making  advances  in  the  reform  of 
municipal  abuses ;  and  by  that  group  too  who, 
under  the  leadership  of  Miss  Jane  Addams,  have 
given  us,  at  Hull  House  in  Chicago,  so  admira- 
ble an  object  lesson  in  the  power  of  neighborli- 
ness.  But  more  than  to  any  other  teachers, 
perhaps,  I  am  indebted  to  those  members  of  the 
Associated  Charities  who  organized  Boston's 
friendly  visitors  nineteen  years  ago,  and  have 


VIU  PREFACE 

led  them  since  to  increasing  usefulness.  Their 
reports  have  been  my  most  valuable  source  of 
information.  If  I  do  not  name  also  my  friends 
and  fellow-workers  here  in  Baltimore,  it  is  not 
because  I  fail  to  bear  them  individually  most 
gratefully  in  mind. 

Baltimore,  January.  1899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

FAGB 

Introduction ,  .        •        i 

CHAPTER  n 
The  Breadwinner 17 

CHAPTER   HI 
The  Breadwinner  at  Home        ....      44 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Homemaker 64 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Children       . 76 

CHAPTER  VI 
Health 95 

CHAPTER  VII 

Spending  and  Saving 108 

ix 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII 

PAGE 

Recreation 127 

CHAPTER   IX 
Relief 140 

CHAPTER  X 
The  Church 166 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Friendly  Visitor 179 

APPENDIX 197 

INDEX 219 


GENERAL   REFERENCES 

Proceedings  of  National  Conferences  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  25  volumes,  especially  portions  containing 
reports  of  sections  on  Child-Saving  and  Organization 
of  Charities.  The  Conference  Reports  constitute  the 
best  American  authority  on  charities.  Special  papers 
in  the  Reports  are  noted  in  this  book  after  the  appro- 
priate chapters. 

Proceedings  of  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Cor- 
rection and  Philanthropy,  Chicago,  1893,  especially 
volumes  on  ''  Care  of  Children  "  and  "  Organization  of 
Charities."  Published  by  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  Bal- 
timore. 

"  Homes  of  the  London  Poor,"  Octavia  Hill.  For  sale  by 
New  York  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  25  cents. 

"Essays,"  Octavia  Hill.  For  sale  by  Boston  Associated 
Charities  ;  price,  10  cents. 

"Rich  and  Poor,"  Mrs.  Bernard  Bosanquet. 

"  How  to  help  the  Poor,"  Mrs.  James  T.  Fields. 

"Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity,"  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw 
Lowell. 

"  American  Charities,"  A.  G.  Warner. 

"  Hull  House  Maps  and  Papers." 


FRIENDLY    VISITING    AMONG 
THE  POOR 

CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTION 

There  is  a  certain  development  in  the  Eng- 
lish novel  of  which  I  have  long  seemed  to 
be  vaguely  conscious.  At  one  time  I  hoped 
to  set  myself  the  task  of  tracing  it,  though  I 
have  since  relinquished  all  thought  of  this  as 
too  ambitious.  The  movement  —  if,  indeed, 
there  be  such  a  movement  —  has  always  pict- 
ured itself  to  my  mind  as  the  march  of  the 
plain  and  common  people  into  the  foreground 
of  English  fiction.  I  venture  to  introduce  the 
idea  here,  though  it  may  appear  foreign  to 
my  subject,  as  illustrating  another  and  equally 
important  movement  in  the  development  of 
charitable  work. 

Should  any  one  ever  turn  over  the  pages  of 
our  two  centuries'  stock  of  novels,  with  a  view 


2         FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

to  tracing  this  gradual  development  of  interest 
in  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  he  would  find,  of 
course,  that  facts  have  a  tantalizing  way  of 
moving  in  zigzags  whenever  one  is  anxious 
that  they  should  move  forward  in  a  straight 
line;  but  he  would  probably  find  also  that,  in 
the  earlier  attempts  of  the  novel  writer  to  pict- 
ure the  poor,  they  were  drawn  as  mere  pup- 
pets on  which  the  richly  endowed  heroes  and 
heroines  exercised  their  benevolence.  Very 
likely  he  would  discover  that,  when  at  last 
the  poor  began  to  take  an  important  part  in 
the. action  of  the  story,  we  were  permitted  to 
see  them  at  first  only  through  a  haze  of  senti- 
mentality, so  that,  allowing  for  great  advances 
in  the  art  of  novel  writing  between  the  time  of 
Richardson  and  the  time  of  Dickens,  we  still 
should  find  the  astonishing  characterizations  of 
"  Pamela  "  reflected  in  the  impossible  virtues 
and  melodramatic  vices  of  Dickens*  poor 
people. 

To  Miss  Edgeworth  and  Scott  first,  perhaps, 
and  to  George  Eliot  most  of  all,  we  should  find 
ourselves  indebted  for  faithful  studies  of  plain 
people,  —  studies  made  with  an  eye  single  to 


INTRODUCTION  3 

the  object,  and  leaving,  therefore,  no  unlovely 
trait  slurred  over  or  excused,  yet  giving  us  that 
perfect  understanding  of  every-day  people 
which  is  the  only  true  basis  of  sympathy  with 
them.  In  America  we  are  indebted  to  such 
conscientious  artists  as  Miss  Jewett  and  Octave 
Thanet  for  a  similar  enlargement  of  our  sym- 
pathies through  their  life-like  pictures  of  the 
less  sophisticated  people  of  our  own  time. 

An  even  more  recent  development  would  be 
found  in  what  is  called  the  "  sociological " 
novel.  Monstrous  and  misshapen  as  this  must 
seem  to  us  often,  if  considered  as  a  work  of 
art,  it  would  have  to  be  reckoned  with  in  any 
investigation  of  the  treatment  of  poverty  in 
fiction. 

Turning  to  the  treatment  of  poverty  in  fact, 
it  is  surely  not  altogether  fanciful  to  think 
that  we  can  trace  a  similar  development,  —  the 
march  of  the  plain  and  common  people  into 
the  foreground  of  the  charitable  consciousness. 
Here,  too,  the  facts  will  not  always  travel  in 
straight  lines,  and  the  great  souls  of  earlier 
ages  will  be  found  to  have  anticipated  our  best 
thinking;  but  usually  the  world  has  failed  in 


4        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

any  effort  to  adopt  their  high  standards. 
Speaking  roughly,  several  centuries  of  chari- 
table practice,  in  the  English  world  at  least, 
are  fairly  well  summed  up  in  the  doggerel 
verses  of  that  sixteenth-century  divine,  quoted 
by  Hobson,  who  counselled  his  flock, 

"  Yet  cease  not  to  give 
Without  any  regard ; 
Though  the  beggars  be  wicked, 
Thou  shalt  have  thy  reward." 

The  spirit  of  the  mediaeval  church,  too,  en- 
couraged charitable  giving  in  the  main  "  as 
a  species  of  fire  insurance."  The  poor,  when 
they  were  thought  of  at  all,  were  too  likely 
to  be  regarded  as  a  means  of  saving  the 
giver's  soul.  This  view  of  poverty  is  either 
quite  dead  or  dying,  but  the  sentimental 
view,  which  succeeded  it,  is  still  very  com- 
mon. We  are  still  inclined  to  take  a  conven- 
tional attitude  toward  the  poor,  seeing  them 
through  the  comfortable  haze  of  our  own 
excellent  intentions,  and  content  to  know  that 
we  wish  them  well,  without  being  at  any  great 
pains  to  know  them  as  they  really  are.  In 
other  words,  our  intentions  are  good,  but  they 


.  INTRODUCTION  S 

are  not  always  good  enough  to  lead  us  to  take 
our  charitable  work  quite  seriously,  and  found 
it  solidly  upon  knowledge  and  experience. 

But  the  century  drawing  to  a  close  has  seen 
two  very  important  developments  in  charitable 
work  in  England  and  America ;  developments 
quite  as  important  in  their  own  field  as  the 
advances  of  the  century  in  the  art  of  fiction. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  wonderful  growth 
of  the  spirit  of  individual  service,  which  has 
found  one  of  its  highest  expressions  in  the 
work  of  friendly  visitors  in  the  homes  of  the 
poor.  The  second  is  the  new  but  vigorous 
growth  of  the  spirit  of  social  service,  which 
has  found  its  best  expression  in  social  and 
college  settlements.  It  might  be  possible 
to  prove  that  both  these  developments  are 
merely  revivals,  that  at  several  stages  of  the 
world's  history  the  same  ideas  have  been  put 
forward  under  other  names;  but  never  be- 
fore, as  it  seems  to  me,  have  they  found  such 
general  recognition. 

This  gives  us  three  tolerably  well-defined 
phases  of  charitable  progress :  the  phases  of 
indiscriminate  relief,  of  individual  service,  and 


6         FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

of  social  service.  In  the  first  phase,  we  are 
charitable  either  for  the  sake  of  our  souls  or 
else  to  gratify  our  own  emotions.  In  the 
second,  we  are  charitable  for  the  sake  of  the 
individual  poor  man.  In  the  third,  we  are 
charitable  for  the  sake  of  the  class  to  which 
he  belongs. 

Of  the  dangers  of  indiscriminate  relief,  it 
should  not  be  necessary  to  speak,  for  much 
has  been  written  on  that  subject;  but  the 
dangers  of  individual  and  social  service  have 
not  been  so  frequently  pointed  out.  These 
two  forms  of  service  are  very  closely  related. 
It  is  impossible  to  treat  the  individual  poor 
man  without  affecting  the  condition  of  his  fel- 
lows for  better  or  worse,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  deal  with  social  conditions  without  affecting 
the  units  that  compose  society.  The  problems 
of  poverty  must  be  attacked  from  both  sides, 
therefore,  and  though  I  shall  dwell  particularly 
upon  individual  service  in  these  pages,  we 
should  remember  that,  unless  this  service  is 
supplemented  by  the  work  of  good  citizens,  who 
shall  strive  to  make  our  cities  healthier  and 
freer  from  temptation,  our  school  system  more 


INTRODUCTION  7 

thorough  and  practical,  and  our  pubHc  charities 
more  effective,  unless  this  public  work  also 
is  pushed  forward,  our  individual  work  in  the 
homes  of  the  poor  will  be  largely  in  vain. 

I  have  said  that  there  were  dangers  in  both 
forms  of  service.  In  work  with  individual  poor 
families  we  are  likely  to  forget  that  these  are 
part  of  a  neighborhood  and  community,  and 
that  we  have  no  right  to  help  them  in  a  way 
that  will  work  harm  to  the  community.  We  are 
always  inclined  to  think  that  the  particular 
family  in  which  we  are  interested  is  an  "  ex- 
ceptional case,"  and  the  exceptional  treatment 
lavished  upon  our  exceptional  case  often  rouses 
in  a  neighborhood  hopes  that  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  fulfil.  Then,  too,  occupied  as  we  are 
with  individuals,  we  are  likely  to  exaggerate  the 
importance  of  those  causes  of  poverty  that  have 
their  origin  in  the  individual.  We  are  likely  to 
over  emphasize  the  moral  and  mental  lacks 
shown  in  bad  personal  habits,  such  as  drunken- 
ness and  licentiousness,  in  thriftlessness,  lazi- 
ness, or  inefficiency ;  and  some  of  us  are  even 
rash  enough  to  attribute  all  the  ills  of  the  poor 
to  drink  or  laziness.     On  the  other  hand,  those 


8        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

who  are  engaged  in  social  service  often  exag- 
gerate the  causes  of  poverty  that  are  external 
to  the  individual.  Bad  industrial  conditions  and 
defective  legislation  seem  to  them  the  causes  of 
nearly  all  the  distress  around  them.  Settlement 
workers  are  likely  to  say  that  the  sufferings  of 
the  poor  are  due  to  conditions  over  which  the 
poor  have  no  control. 

The  truth  lies  somewhere  between  these  two 
extremes ;  the  fact  being  that  the  persmial  and 
social^causes  of  poverty  act  and  react  upon  each 
other,  changing  places  as  cause  and  as  effect, 
until  they  form  a  tangle  that  no  hasty,  impatient 
jerking  can  unravel.  The  charity  worker  and 
the  settlement  worker  have  need  of  each  other  : 
neither  one  can  afford  to  ignore  the  experience 
of  the  other.  Friendly  visitors  and  all  who  are 
trying  to  improve  conditions  in  poor  homes 
should  welcome  the  experience  of  those  who 
are  studying  trade  conditions  and  other  more 
general  aspects  of  questions  affecting  the  wel- 
fare of  the  poor.  But  they  should  not  permit 
themselves  to  be  swept  away  by  enthusiastic 
advocates  of  social  reform  from  that  safe  middle 
ground  which  recognizes  that  character  is  at  the 


■0 


INTRODUCTION 

very  centre  of  this  complicated  problem ;  char-    ^v 
acter  in  the  rich,  who  owe  the  poor  justice  as 
well  as  mercy,  and  character  in  the  poor,  who  r  / 
are  masters  of  their  fate  to  a  greater  degree  ;   | 
than  they  will  recognize  or  than  we  will  recog- 
nize for  them.      To  ignore  the  importance  of 
character  and  of  the  disciph'ne  that  makes  char- 
acter is  a  common  fault  of  modern  philanthropy. 
Rich  and  poor  alike  are  pictured  as  the  victims  \/ 
of  circumstances,  of  a  wrong  social  order.     A     "^ 
political  writer   has  said   that   formerly,  when 
our  forefathers  became  dissatisfied,  they  pushed 
farther  into  the  wilderness,  but  that  now,  if  any- 1/; 
thing  goes  wrong,  we  run  howling  to  Washing-^ 
ton,  asking  special  legislation  for  our  troubles. 
Symptoms  are  not  lacking  of  a  healthy  reaction 
from  this  undemocratic  attitude  of  mind.     In  so 
far  as  our  charitable  work  affects  it,  let  us  see 
to  it  that  we  do  our  part  in  restoring  a  tone  of 
sturdy   self-reliance   and  independence   to  the 
Commonwealth. 

Turning  from  these  more  general  considera- 
tions, it  is  proposed,  in  this  book,  to  treat  of 
various  aspects  of  the  home  life  of  the  poor  as 


lO      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

affected  by  charity.  At  the  very  beginning, 
however,  it  may  be  well  to  inquire,  Who  are 
the  poor  ?  If  this  were  a  study  of  the  needs  of 
the  rich,  we  should  realize  at  once  that  they  are 
a  difficult  class  to  generalize  about ;  rich  people 
are  understood  to  differ  widely  from  each  other 
in  tastes,  aims,  virtues,  and  vices.  The  great, 
conglomerate  class  of  the  rich  —  which  is  really 
no  social  class  at  all  —  has  included  human 
beings  as  different  as  Lord  Shaftesbury  and  Mr. 
Barney  Barnato.  But  it  is  the  very  same  with 
the  poor ;  and  any  effort  to  go  among  them  for 
the  purpose  of  helping  them  that  does  not 
frankly  recognize  this  wMe  diversity,  must  end 
in  failure.  The  charity  worker  must  rid  him- 
self, first  of  all,  of  the  conventional  picture  of 
the  poor  as  always  either  very  abjectly  needy, 
or  else  very  abjectly  grateful.*  He  must  under- 
stand that  an  attitude  of  patronage  toward  the 
poor  man  is  likely  to  put  the  patron  in  as  ridicu- 
lous a  position  as  Mr.  Pullet,  when  he  addressed 
his  nephew,  Tom  Tulliver,  as  "Young  Sir." 
Upon  which  George  Eliot  remarks :  "  A  boy's 
sheepishness  is  by  no  means  a  sign  of  overmas- 
tering reverence ;   and  while   you   are  making 


INTRODUCTION  II 

encouraging  advances  to  him  under  the  idea 
that  he  is  overwhelmed  by  a  sense  of  your  age 
and  wisdom,  ten  to  one  he  is  thinking  you  ex- 
tremely queer."  The  would-be  philanthropist, 
who  is  very  conscious  of  himself  and  only 
vaguely  conscious  of  the  object  of  his  benevo- 
lence, is  likely  to  seem  and  to  be  "extremely 
queer." 

If  I  were  writing  about  the  rich,  I  should 
be  inclined  to  divide  them,  according  to  their 
attitude  toward  life,  into  workers  and  parasites^/ 
but  this  classification  will  serve  for  the  poor 
as  well.  The  motto  of  the  worker  is,  "  I  owe 
the  world  a  life,"  and  the  motto  of  the  para- 
site is,  "  The  world  owes  me  a  living."  When 
the  parasite  happens  to  be  poor  we  call  him 
a  ^uper ;  but  Jhere  is  a  world  of  difference 
between  poverty  and  pauperism.  The  poor 
man  may  become  destitute  through  stress  of 
circumstances,  and  be  forced  to  accept  charity, 
but  your  true  pauper,  be  he  rich  or  poor,  has 
the  parasitic  habit  of  mind.  When  we  ask 
ourselves  then.  Who  are  the  poor  ?  we  must  i 
answer  that  they  include  widely  divergent 
types  of   character,  —  the   selfish  and  the  un- 


12      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

selfish,  the  noble  and  the  mean,  workers  and 
parasites  —  and  that,  in  going  among  them, 
we  must  be  prepared  to  meet  human  beings 
differing  often  from  ourselves,  it  may  be,  in 
trivial  and  external  things,  but  like  ourselves 
in  all  else. 

Some  who  are  ready  enough  to  recognize 
these  rudimentary  facts  about  the  poor,  ques- 
tion our  right  to  go  among  them  with  the 
object  of  doing  them  good,  regarding  it  as  an 
impertinent  interference  with  the  rights  of  the 
individual.  But  those  who  hold  to  this  view 
seldom  have  the  courage  of  their  convictions. 
When  they  see  suffering,  they  are  very  likely 
to  interfere  by  sending  help,  though  this 
well-meant  interference,  unaccompanied  by  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  all  the  circumstances,  often 
does  more  harm  than  good,  and  becomes  a 
temptation  rather  than  a  help.  We  must  inter- 
fere when  confronted  by  human  suffering  and 
need.  Why  not  interfere  effectively  ?  Why 
not  do  our  best  to  remove  the  causes  of  need  ? 

Many  earnest  workers  in  charity  feel  that 
social  conditions  could  be  wonderfully  im- 
proved  if,  to   every   family   in   distress,   could 


INTRODUCTION  13 

be  sent  a  volunteer  visitor,  who  would  seek 
out  and,  with  patience  and  sympathy,  strive 
to  remove  the  causes  of  need.  Such  a  visitor 
must  have  the  courage  and  self-control  to  con- 
fine his  work  to  a  few  families,  for  it  is  im- 
possible to  know  many  well,  to  understand  all 
their  temptations  and  difficulties,  and  so  help 
them  effectively.  To  supply  every  needy 
family  with  a  friend  may  seem  an  impossi- 
ble ideal,  but  if  all  who  are  undoing  each 
other's  work  to-day  by  doing  it  twice  over, 
and  if  all  who  now  waste  their  time  in 
unnecessary  charities,  were  seriously  to  put 
themselves  in  training,  and  confine  their  work 
to  the  thorough  treatment  of  a  few  families, 
the  problem  of  how  to  help  the  poor  would 
be  solved. 

The  introduction  to  such  work  might  come 
in  many  ways.  It  might  come  through  our 
natural  relations  as  employers  or  neighbors  or 
church  members,  or  it  might  come  through 
the  district  office  of  a  charity  organization 
society,  for  these  societies  usually  make  a 
specialty  of  training  volunteers  and  of  estab- 
lishing   friendly    relations    between    volunteer 


14       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

visitors  and  needy  families.  But  come  as  it 
may,  an  introduction  can  be  made  for  us,  and 
we  need  not  enter  the  poor  man's  home  as  an 
intruder. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  qualifica- 
tions necessary  for  charitable  work.  It  is 
possible  to  exaggerate  them.  Those  who  are 
unfamiliar  with  the  homes  of  the  poor  are 
likely  to  think  it  unsafe  to  send  young  and 
inexperienced  people  into  poor  neighborhoods. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  many  good  peo- 
ple in  the  poorest  neighborhoods,  and  young 
workers  are  as  safe  there  as  anywhere.  In 
an  old  note-book  I  find  that  years  ago  I 
set  down  the  necessary  qualifications  of  the 
friendly  visitor  to  be  tact  and  good-will.  If  we 
consider  that  tact  includes  knowledge,  either 
instinctive  or  acquired,  this  may  still  stand. 
We  cannot  be  tactful  with  those  whose  point 
of  view  we  fail  to  understand,  or  do  not 
even  strive  to  understand.  The  best  helps 
toward  such  an  understanding,  and  the  best 
training  for  charitable  work,  must  come  from 
life  itself.  If  we  take  no  interest  in  the  joys 
and    sorrows    of    human    beings,    if    we    show 


INTRODUCTION  15 

neither  judgment  nor  energy  in  the  conduct 
of  our  own  affairs,  if  life  seem  to  us,  on  the 
whole,  a  flat  and  unprofitable  affair,  then  no 
amount  of  reading  will  transform  us  into  good 
friendly  visitors.  Given  the  tactful,  kindly 
spirit,  with  a  dash  of  energy  added,  study  and 
experience  can  teach  us  how  to  turn  these  to 
the  best  account  in  the  service  of  others.  Our 
reading  must  be  supplementary  to  experience, 
of  course,  and  can  in  no  wise  take  the  place 
of  it. 

Leaving  all  further  generalization  about 
friendly  visiting  for  the  last  chapter,  in  the 
following  pages  my  point  of  departure  will 
be  the  organization  of  the  poor  man's  home 
rather  than  the  organization  of  charity.  The 
head  of  the  family  as  citizen,  employee,  hus- 
band, and  father ;  the  wife  as  homemaker ; 
the  children ;  the  family  health  and  recreations ; 
the  principles  involved  in  spending  and  sav- 
ing ;  the  principles  of  effectual  relief ;  the 
relations  of  the  church  to  the  poor, — these 
will  be  considered  in  turn.  Necessarily,  in  a 
book  of  this  size,  the  attempt  must  be  to 
suggest   lines   of   inquiry  and   points  of  view, 


l6       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

rather   than  to  treat   adequately  any  one   part 
of  the  subject. 


Collateral  Readings :  "  Individuality  in  the  Work  of 
Charity,"  George  B.  Buzelle  in  Proceedings  of  Thirteenth 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  185  sq,  "  Scientific 
Charity,"  Mrs.  Glendower  Evans  in  Proceedings  of  Six- 
teenth National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  24  sq.  Chap- 
ters on  "  Scientific  Charity  "  in  "  Problems  of  American 
Society,"  J.  H.  Crooker.  Papers  on  Social  Settlements  in 
Proceedings  of  Twenty-third  National  Conference  of  Char- 
ities, pp.  106  sq.  "  The  Causes  of  Poverty,"  F.  A.  Walker 
in  "  Century,"  Vol.  LV,  pp.  2 10  sq.  "  The  Jukes,"  Richard 
Dugdale.  "Tribe  of  Ishmael,"  Oscar  McCulloch  in  Pro- 
ceedings of  Fifteenth  National  Conference  of  Charities, 
pp.  \^\sq.  "The  Rooney  Family,"  see  Charles  Booth's 
"Life  and  Labor  of  the  People,"  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  317  J^. 
"  Life  in  New  York  Tenement  Houses,"  William  T.  Rising 
in  "  Scribner's,"  Vol.  XI,  pp.  677  sq.  "  An  Experiment  in 
Altruism,"  Miss  Margaret  Sherwood. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   BREADWINNER 

A  CONFERENCE  was  held  in  one  of  our  large 
cities  lately  of  half  a  dozen  church  and  charity- 
workers,  who  had  been  called  together  to 
make  some  plan  or  agree  upon  some  common 
principle  in  dealing  with  a  certain  family,  to 
whom  charitable  relief  had  been  given  in  an 
aimless  way  for  many  years  with  no  good 
result.  Three  churches  were  represented,  and 
the  persons  present  had  visited  and  relieved 
the  family  for  periods  ranging  from  three  to 
ten  years.  Almost  immediately,  however,  the 
fact  was  brought  out  at  the  conference  that 
not  one  of  these  visitors  had  ever  seen  the 
man  of  the  family,  or  had  ever  made  any 
effort  to  see  him.  By  way  of  excuse  one 
visitor  said  she  had  always  understood  that 
the    man    was    very    good-for-nothing.        But 

happily  there  is  no  better  dispeller  of   mental 
c  17 


1 8        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

fog  than  a  friendly  conference  of  those  who 
are  in  earnest,  and  it  did  not  take  long  to 
convince  these  conferees  that  the  man's  good- 
for-nothingness  was,  in  part  at  least,  their  own 
fault.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  more 
than  once,  in  this  book,  of  the  power  of  sug- 
gestion. Even  here,  where  these  relief  visit- 
ors had  never  given  the  head  of  the  family 
a  thought,  they  had  taught  him  a  lesson. 
From  their  whole  line  of  conduct  he  must 
have  received  the  suggestion  that  his  neglect 
of  his  family  was  an  affair  of  no  consequence. 
In  turning  to  the  details  of  family  life 
among  the  poor,  I  take  the  breadwinner,  or 
the  one  who  ought  to  be  the  breadwinner,  as 
my  first  consideration  for  the  reason  that  he 
is  so  often  ignored  altogether  by  charity 
workers.  Especially  is  this  true  of  church 
workers.  "A  church  worker  came  to  me  the 
other  day,"  writes  Mrs.  Bosanquet,  "about  a 
family  of  little  children,  concerning  whom  he 
was  greatly  distressed.  He  had  visited  them 
for  months,  and  found  the  woman  honest, 
striving,  and  clean,  but  as  usually  happens  he 
knew  very  little  of  the  man.     He  assured  me 


THE  BREADWINNER  19 

over  and  over  again  that  the  family  was  in  a 
pitiable  state  of  poverty  and  in  urgent  need 
of  help ;  and  we  at  once  set  to  work  to  ascer- 
tain the  real  financial  position.  Result :  man 
earning  35^".,  giving  20^-.  to  his  wife  and 
keeping  15^.  for  pocket-money.  Obviously,  if 
charity  steps  in  here,  it  will  not  necessarily 
improve  the  state  of  the  wife  and  children  at 
all;  it  will  merely  enable  the  man  to  keep  a 
still  larger  proportion  of  his  wages  for  pocket- 
money."  ^ 

But,  though  the  charity  worker  may  ignore 
the  man  of  the  family,  there  are  others  who 
are  wiser.  In  the  first  place  he  is  a  voter, 
and  the  ward-worker,  the  policeman,  and  the 
saloon-keeper  never  forget  this  fact. 

An  illustration  of  the  policeman's  interest 
in  the  voter  as  an  applicant  for  charity  may 
be  found  wherever  the  police  are  allowed  to 
become  distributors  of  alms.  In  Baltimore 
the  police  have  been  allowed  to  distribute 
relief  intrusted  to  them  by  private  citizens, 
and  have  been  in  the  habit  of  making  public 
appeals  for  such  contributions  to  aid  the  poor 

i"Rich  and  Poor,"  p.  211. 


20       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

in  cold  weather.  One  policeman,  who  had  a 
difficult  beat,  where  there  were  many  toughs 
and  criminals,  said  that  the  distribution  of 
police  relief  made  his  work  easier,  as  toughs 
whose  families  had  been  relieved  did  not 
trouble  him  so  much.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that,  during  the  hard  times  of  1893-94, 
political  clubs  vied  with  each  other  the  coun- 
try over  in  distributing  aid.  Leaders  of  Tam- 
many Hall  were  shrewd  enough  to  urge  their 
followers  to  organize  relief  distributions  in 
every  district  of  New  York. 

It  is  well  to  realize  that  much  of  the  politi- 
cal corruption  of  our  large  cities  may  be 
traced  to  the  simple  fact  that  the  poor  man 
is  like  ourselves :  he  follows  the  leaders  per- 
sonally known  to  him,  and  to  whom  he  is 
personally  known.  He  is  sometimes  a  venal 
voter,  but  more  often  he  is  only  an  ignorant 
voter,  who,  while  innocently  following  the  man 
that  has  taken  the  trouble  to  do  him  a  favor 
or  to  be  socially  agreeable  to  him,  is  handi- 
capping himself  and  his  children  with  dirty 
streets,  an  unsanitary  home,  an  overcrowded 
school,    an    insufficient    water    supply,    black- 


THE  BREADWINNER  21 

mailing  officials,  and  all  those  other  abuses 
of  city  government  which  press  with  peculiar 
hardship  upon  the  poor.  The  question  of 
municipal  reform  is  inextricably  connected 
with  any  effort  to  improve  the  condition  of 
the  poor  in  their  homes,  and  no  charity  worker 
can  afford  to  ignore  this  connection. 

In  "Problems  of  Modern  Democracy,"  Mr. 
E.  L.  Godkin  says :  "  Nothing  is  more  sur- 
prising in  the  attempt  to  deal  with  the  prob- 
lems of  urban  life  than  the  way  in  which 
religious  and  philanthropic  people  ignore  the 
close  connection  between  municipal  politics 
and  the  various  evils  about  which  they  are 
most  concerned.  All  the  churches  occupy 
themselves,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  with 
the  moral  condition  of  the  poor.  Charitable 
associations  spend  hundreds  of  thousands  every 
year  in  trying  to  improve  their  physical  con- 
dition. A  conference  of  Protestant  ministers 
met  in  this  city  two  years  ago  to  consider 
the  best  means  of  reviving  religious  interest 
among  the  working  classes  and  inducing  a 
larger  number  of  them  to  attend  church  on 
M'  Sundays.     Of  course  these  gentlemen  did  not 


22        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

seek  an  increase  in  the  number  of  church- 
goers as  an  end  in  itself.  The  Protestant 
churches  do  not,  as  the  CathoUc  church  does, 
ascribe  any  serious  spiritual  efficacy  to  mere 
bodily  presence  at  religious  worship.  Protes- 
tant ministers  ask  people  to  go  to  church  in 
the  hope  that  the  words  which  they  will  hear 
with  their  outward  ears  may  be  so  grafted  in- 
wardly in  their  hearts  that  they  may  bring 
forth  the  fruit  of  good  living.  What  was 
remarkable  in  the  debates  of  this  conference, 
therefore,  was  the  absence  of  any  mention  of 
the  very  successful  rivalry  with  religion  which, 
as  an  influence  on  the  poor  and  ignorant  for- 
eign population,  politics  in  this  city  carries 
on.  The  same  thing  may  be  said,  mutatis 
mutandis,  of  the  charitable  associations.  No 
one  would  get  from  their  speeches  or  reports 
an  inkling  of  the  solemn  fact  that  the  newly 
arrived  immigrant  who  settles  in  New  York 
gets  tenfold  more  of  his  notions  of  American 
right  and  wrong  from  city  politics  than  he 
gets  from  the  city  missionaries,  or  the  schools, 
or  the  mission  chapels;  and  yet  such  is  the 
case.     I  believe  it  is  quite  within  the  truth  to 


THE  BREADWINNER  23 

say   that,    as   a   moral    influence   on   the    poor 
and  ignorant,  the  clergyman  and  philanthropist  | 
are  hopelessly  distanced  by  the  politician."  ^ 

It  has  been  said  that,  in  the  effort  to  estab- 
lish friendly  relations  with  a  poor  man,  often 
the  greatest  lack  is  a  common  topic.  Here 
is  at  least  one  topic  that  rich  and  poor  have 
in  common.  Here  it  will  be  found  too  that 
they  have  many  grievances  in  common,  and 
what  makes  a  better  beginning  for  a  friendly 
relation  than  a  common  grievance  ?  Another 
common  topic,  and  a  related  one,  is  the  news 
of  the  day.  More  often  than  not,  even  the 
very  poor  read  the  daily  papers. 

Beside  the  ward  politician,  the  saloon-keeper,  J 
and  the  policeman,  there  are  others  who  take  ^ 
an  interest  in  the  breadwinner.  If  he  is 
injured,  or  his  property  is  injured,  there  are 
third-rate  lawyers  ready  to  bring  suit  for  half 
the  proceeds  —  an  unduly  expensive  arrange- 
ment for  the  man  that  has  a  good  claim.  If 
he  would  save,  there  are  agents  of  unsound 
financial  schemes  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
his  ignorance.     If  he  would  borrow,  there  are 

1  pp.  141  s^. 


24       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

chattel-mortgage  sharks  ready  to  burden  him 
with  a  debt  at  ruinous  interest.  If  he  would 
buy,  there  are  instalment  dealers  ready  to 
tempt  him  into  buying  more  than  he  can 
afford,  and  ready  to  charge  two  prices  for  their 
wares.  Whole  industries  are  created  to  take 
advantage  of  his  lack  of  shrewdness,  and  every 
effort  of  his  to  get  on,  to  get  out  of  the  old 
groove,  is  resisted  by  such  agencies.  Surely, 
if  any  one  stands  in  need  of  a  friend,  who 
will  patiently  strive  to  see  the  world  through 
his  eyes,  and  yet  will  have  the  courage  to  tell 
him  the  plain  truth,  it  is  the  breadwinner. 

But  that  picture  would  be  a  distorted  one 
which  represented  the  poor  man  as  friendless 
save  for  the  politicians.  His  neighbors  and 
companions  are  in  no  position  to  protect  him 
from  the  foes  I  have  mentioned,  but  their 
neighborliness  is  none  the  less  genuine.  Most, 
patient  and  long-suffering  of  neighbors  are  the 
small  landlords  who  sublet.  The  tradesi^en 
in  poor  neighborhoods  are  also  heavy  loser^. 
When  a  family  applies  for  the  first  time  to  a 
church  or  charity,  it  often  means  that  they 
have  been   aided   most  generously  for  a  long 


THE  BREADWINNER  25 

time  by  neighbors  and  small  dealers.  Some- 
times one  happens  upon  the  very  best  and  most 
thoughtful  charity  given  in  this  way.  A  Bos- 
ton worker  tells  of  a  street-car  conductor, 
not  only  supported  through  the  winter  by  his 
fellow-conductors,  but  faithfully  nursed  by  them 
at  night,  each  one  taking  turns  after  the  long 
day's  work.  Such  glimpses  as  this  show  us 
how  queer  is  our  usual  charitable  perspective, 
in  which,  as  in  a  picture  on  a  Chiniese  fan,  we 
see  the  church  steeple  in  the  middle  distance 
and  the  church  visitor  looming  large  in  the 
foreground,  while  the  poor  little  object  of 
charity,  quite  helpless  and  alone  save  for  us, 
huddles  in  a  corner.  The  fact  is  that  every 
life  has  a  background,  if  we  will  but  take  the 
trouble  to  see  and  understand  it :  all  the  bar- 
renness is  in  our  own  imaginations. 

When  the  poor  man  attempts  to  be  charitable 
without  knowledge,  he  is  just  as  clumsy  as  the  \ 
rest  of  us.     Writing  of  "The  Attitude  of  Work-    \ 
ingmen   toward    Modern  Charity,"   Miss  Clare    | 
de   Graffenreid  says:   "A   notable  instance  of    | 
reckless  giving  came  under  my  observation  just  | 


26        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

when  a  man  who  had  lost  both  arms  went 
begging  in  Georges  Creek  Valley.  How  he 
was  maimed,  whether  he  was  worthy,  proved 
immaterial.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  he  was 
even  a  miner;  but  he  asked  alms  at  all  the 
mines.  Now  the  miners  had  had  no  money 
since  they  were  paid  off  for  April,  the  strike 
having  begun  on  the  7th  of  May  and  having 
lasted  until  the  ist  of  July,  while  some  workers 
were  unable  to  secure  employment  until  later. 
After  two  months  and  more  of  idleness  the 
men  had  either  used  their  savings  to  live  on 
or  were  deeply  in  debt,  or  both.  They  could 
hope  for  no  money  until  their  July  labor  was 
paid  for  in  August.  In  the  latter  part  of  July 
came  this  armless  stranger,  who  personally 
solicited  these  big-hearted  coal  diggers,  and  re- 
ceived, without  investigation  on  their  part, 
written  subscriptions  for  various  amounts,  to 
be  withheld  next  pay-day  from  their  wages. 
From  the  mines  of  one  company  alone  the 
man  presented  to  the  paymaster  orders  amount- 
ing to  three  hundred  dollars;  and  the  super- 
intendent believes  that  this  one  beggar  during 
a   short   stay   in   the   Valley   obtained   fully   a 


THE  BREADWINNER  27 

thousand  dollars,  if  not  more.  Nor  did  the 
enterprising  mendicant  trouble  himself  to  re- 
main to  collect  these  sums  in  person.  He 
gave  a  Chicago  address  to  which  checks  for 
the  total  amounts  subscribed  in  each  mine  were 
sent ;  and  he  went  away  to  '  work '  some  other 
field."  1 

These  facts  stand  side  by  side.  The  poor 
man  is  often  able  to  do  the  very  best  charitable 
work,  acting  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  cir- 
cumstances, with  quick  sympathy,  and  entire 
unselfishness.  On  the  other  hand,  when  con-  j 
siderations  of  public  welfare,  or  conditions  out- 
side his  personal  experience  complicate  the 
situation,  his  charity  is  sometimes  reckless  and 
harmful. 

Another  fact  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  the  ties 
of  neighborliness  and  mutual  dependence  among 
the  poor  can  be  weakened  by  a  charity  that 
leaves  such  natural  and  healthful  relations  out 
of  account.  The  poor  in  rich  neighborhoods, 
or  in  neighborhoods  where  alms  are  lavishly 
given,  are  less  kind  to  each  other,  and  the 
whole  tone  of  a  neighborhood  can  be  lowered, 

1 "  Charities  Record,"  Baltimore,  Vol.  I,  No.  6. 


28       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

iy/inistrust  and  jealousy  being  substituted  for  neigh- 
f  borly  helpfulness,  by  undiscriminating  doles 
from  those  whose  kindly  but  condescending 
attitude  has  quite  blinded  them  to  the  every- 
day facts  of  the  neighborhood  life.  There 
are  some  who  think  it  a  pity  that,  out  of  their 
slender  store,  the  poor  should  give  to  the  still 
poorer;  they  feel  that  the  rich  should  relieve 
the  poor  of  this  burden.  But  relief  given  with- 
out reference  to  friends  and  neighbors  is  accom- 
panied by  moral  loss;  poor  neighborhoods  are 
doomed  to  grow  poorer  and  more  sordid,  when- 
ever the  natural  ties  of  neighborliness  are 
weakened  by  our  well-meant  but  unintelligent 
interference. 

Turning  to  the  breadwinner  as  an  employee, 
we  are  confronted  with  the  gravest  questions, 
now  occupying  public  attention:  with  the  or- 
ganization of  labor,  the  strike,  the  lockout,  the 
rights  of  capital,  the  problem  of  the  unem- 
ployed, and  of  the  unskilled  laborer.  The 
truth  about  these  matters,  even  if  one  were  so 
fortunate  as  to  possess  the  truth  about  them, 
is  not  to  be  stated  in  a  paragraph  or  a  chapter. 


OF  THE  li 

THE  BREADWINNER  .^^    /     29 


( 


Only  in  so  far  as  they  directly  concern  the 
friendly  visitor  to  the  families  of  the  least  fort- 
unate class  of  workers,  can  questions  of  em- 
ployment be  even  mentioned  in  these  pages. 
The  more  the  visitor  studies  and  thinks  of 
them,  however,  the  better  friend  he  can  be  to 
the  poor.  Partly  because  they  are  difficult, 
and  partly  because  our  prejudices  are  involved, 
the  charitable  are  too  prone  to  dodge  economic 
issues. 

We  should  ask  ourselves  fearlessly  the  object 
of  all  our  charitable  work.  As  Mrs.  Bosanquet 
says :  "  We  need  to  be  quite  sure  that  we 
really  want  to  cure  poverty,  to  do  away  with 
it  root  and  branch.  Unless  we  are  working 
with  a  whole-hearted  and  genuine  desire 
toward  this  end,  we  shall  get  little  satisfaction 
from  our  efforts;  but.  those  who  share  unre- 
servedly in  this  desire  are  comparatively  few 
at  present.  Only  the  other  day  I  heard  it  said 
that  it  was  a  very  doubtful  policy  to  aim  at 
curing  poverty,  for  that  in  the  absence  of  pov- 
erty the  rich  would  *have  no  one  upon  whom 
to  exercise  their  faculty  of  benevolence;  and 
I    believe    that    this    was    but    an    outspoken 


30        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

expression  of  a  feeling  which  is  still  very 
prevalent,  the  feeling  that  there  is  something 
preordained  and  right  in  the  social  dependence 
of  one  class  upon  another.  There  is  the  lurk- 
ing fear,  also,  that  if  the  working  classes  get 
too  independent  the  rich  man  may  suffer  for 
it.  'I,t  won't  do,'  said  one  wise  lady,  *to  make 
them  too  independent;  they  go  and  join  trade- 
unions,  and  a  friend  of  mine  lost  quite  a  lot  of 
money  because  his  workmen  joined  a  trade- 
union.'  This  is  quite  in  the  vein  of  the  old 
Quarterly  Reviewer,  who  summed  up  the  cur- 
rent objections  to  the  Owenite  schemes  of 
cooperation  as  *the  fear  that  the  working 
classes  might  become  so  independent  that  the 
unworking  classes  would  not  have  sufficient 
control  over  them,  and  would  be  ultimately 
obliged  to  work  for  themselves.' "  ^ 

The  ability  of  the  friendly  visitor  to  put 
behind  him  his  own  personal  prejudices  and 
selfish  interests,  and  look  at  all  questions  of 
employment  with  reference  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  workers,  is  of  the  first  importance. 
Such   questions   are    often    very    complicated. 

i"Rich  and  Poor,"  pp.  138  j^. 


THE  BREADWINNER  3 1 

An  inquiry  was  sent  out  in  1896  to  the  charity 
organization  societies  of  the  country,  asking 
whether  these  societies  approved  of  supplying 
workers  to  take  the  place  of  striking  employees. 
The  answers,  as  reported  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Twenty-third  National  Conference  of 
Charities,^  seem  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
either  all  strikes  are  equally  justifiable  or 
else  equally  unjustifiable;  the  fact  being,  of 
course,  that  some  strikes  are  entirely  justifi- 
able, that  others  are  quite  the  reverse,  and 
that  still  others,  which  are  justifiable  at  one 
stage,  become  unjustifiable  at  another  stage, 
where  the  ground  of  contention  has  been 
shifted. 

It  is  about  such  complicated  relations  as 
these  that  we  must  inform  ourselves  when  we 
dare  to  interfere,  and  charitable  societies  can- 
not afford  to  adopt  any  patent  formula  with 
regard  to  them;  they  must  be,  courageous 
enough  and  intelligent  enough  to  bear  their 
part  in  the  solution  of  industrial  questions. 
The  individual  friendly  visitor  may  be  called 
upon   at   any   time   to   advise   an   unemployed 

1  pp.  242  sg. 


32        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

workman  whose  only  immediate  chance  of 
work  is  in  replacing  a  striker.  His  family 
may  be  destitute,  and  their  troubles  may  press 
heavily  upon  the  visitor,  who  sees  in  the  offered 
work  an  easy  solution  of  their  difficulties.  But 
the  visitor's  duty  toward  the  family  does  not 
end  with  their  material  needs,  and,  unless  the 
man  who  replaces  the  striker  is  sure  that  the 
strike  deserves  to  fail,  he  will  have  done  an 
unmanly  thing  in  betraying  his  natural  allies. 
All  question  of  the  right  of  individual  contract 
aside,  he  will  have  injured  himself,  he  will  be 
a  meaner  man  and  a  less  worthy  head  of  a 
family.  Charity  cannot  afford  to  ignore  this 
possible  result  for  any  temporary  and  material 
advantage.  Nor  will  it  be  enough  for  the 
friendly  visitor  to  believe  that  the  particular 
strike  is  an  unjustifiable  one;  the  man  himself 
must  believe  it. 

Other  things  being  equal,  a  man  is  stronger 
and  steadier  for  having  a  trade  that  is  well 
organized,  one  that  has  its  trade  code  of 
jethics.  It  is  safe  to  say,  therefore,  that  a 
/visitor  is  justified  in  advising  non-union  men 
to  join  trade-unions,  and  that  he  is  not  com- 


1/' 


THE  BREADWINNER  33 

mitting  himself  to  an  endorsement  of  every  act 
of  every  trade-union  in  so  doing. 

But  applicants  for  charity  are  not  usually 
skilled  workmen,  and  most  of  the  work  of  the 
friendly  visitor  will  be  with  those  whose  occu- 
pations are  still  unorganized,  with  porters,  day- 
laborers,  stevedores,  etc.  In  spite  of  many 
assertions  to  the  contrary,  it  would  seem  that, 
in  ordinary  times,  there  is  still  work  some- 
where for  those  who  have  the  will  and  the 
skill  to  do  it.  The  charity  worker  has  dis- 
couragements enough  without  allowing  him- 
self to  be  demoralized  by  the  wild  talk  about 
millions  of  skilled  workers  out  of  work.  Dur- 
ing times  of  panic,  even,  the  number  of  the 
unemployed  is  often  grossly  exaggerated.^ 

The  fact  which  most  directly  concerns  us 
is  that  a  large  majority  of  those  who  are 
thrown  upon  charity  through  lack  of  employ- 
ment are  either  incapable  or  are  unfit  for  ser- 
vice through  bad  habits,  bad  temper,  lack  of 
references,  ignorance  of  English,  or  through 
some  physical  defect.  Experience  has  proven 
that  a  certain  proportion  of  these  can  be  re- 

1  See  Warner's  "American  Charities,"  pp.  lyj sg. 
D 


34        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

instated  in  the  labor  market  if  we  are  careful 
(i)  not  to  make  it  too  easy  for  them  to  live 
without  work, ,'(2)  if  we  will  use  every  personal 
endeavor  to  fit  them  for  some  kind  of  work, 
and  (3)  help  them  to  find  and  keep  the  work 
for  which  they  are  fitted.  **  Character  is  not 
cut  in  marble;  it  is  not  something  solid  and 
unalterable.  It  is  something  living  and  chang- 
ing, and  may  become  diseased  as  our  bodies 
do."^  Like  our  bodies,  too,  it  may  be  made 
whole  again  by  skilful  treatment. 

Those  who  are  simply  incapable,  without 
bad  habits  or  other  defects,  are  often  the  vic- 
tims of  their  parents'  necessities  or  greed : 
they  were  put  to  work  too  early,  and  at  work 
where  there  was  no  chance  of  education  or 
promotion.  Sometimes  they  have  been  wil- 
fully careless  and  lazy,  but,  more  often,  the 
fault  was  either  with  the  parents  or  with  an 
economic  condition  that  denied  them  proper 
training.  Of  all  this  we  shall  hear  in  connec- 
tion with  the  children,  but  our  present  con- 
cern is  with  the  breadwinner.  The  man  who 
"does   not   know  how"  is  the  football  of   in- 

1  George  Eliot  in  "Daniel  Deronda." 


THE  BREADWINNER  35 

dustry;  employed  in  work  requiring  nothing 
but  muscle,  promptly  discharged  because  easily 
replaced,  he  drifts  from  job  to  job,  and,  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year,  being  unable  to 
adapt  himself  or  easily  change  from  one  kind 
of  work  to  another,  he  is  almost  certain  to  be 
unemployed. 

Miss  Octavia  Hill  calls  attention  to  this  in 
"Homes  of  the  London  Poor."^  "The  fluctu- 
ations of  work  cause  to  respectable  tenants 
the  main  difficulties  in  paying  their  rent.  I 
have  tried  to  help  them  in  two  ways.  First,  by 
inducing  them  to  save;  this  they  have  done 
steadily,  and  each  autumn  has  found  them  with 
a  small  fund  accumulated,  which  has  enabled 
them  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  the  time  when 
families  are  out  of  town.  In  the  second  place, 
I  have  done  what  I  could  to  employ  my  ten- 
ants in  slack  seasons.  I  carefully  set  aside 
any  work  they  can  do  for  times  of  scarcity, 
and  I  try  so  to  equalize  in  this  small  circle 
the  irregularity  of  work,  which  must  be  more 
or  less  pernicious,  and  which  the  childishness 
of   the    poor    makes   doubly   so.      They   have 

^  pp.  22  sq. 


36        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

Strangely  little  power  of  looking  forward ;  a 
result  is  to  them  as  nothing  if  it  will  not  be 
perceptible  until  next  quarter ! " 

This  plan  of  equalizing  work  by  saving  our 
odd  jobs  for  dull  seasons  is  one  way  of  help- 
ing. Another  is  to  seek  lists  of  unskilled  and 
seasonal  occupations  that  do  not  overlap. 
Some  work  is  naturally  winter  work,  and  some 
naturally  belongs  to  the  summer  season.  The 
ice  companies  in  Baltimore  employ  their  work- 
ers in  winter  by  combining  the  coal  business 
with  the  ice  business,  and,  on  this  principle,  a 
list  could  be  drawn  up  for  each  community  of 
occupations  that  do  not  overlap.  No  list  can 
be  given  here,  because  the  conditions  of  work 
vary  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 

When  we  furnish  work  ourselves  we  must 
be  careful  not  to  confound  the  employer  with 
the  friend.  "A  visitor  was  interested  in  a 
woman  who  needed  work  very  much,  and  her- 
self employed  her,"  writes  the  secretary  of  the 
Boston  Associated  Charities,  Miss  Z.  D.  Smith. 
"  Once  or  twice  it  happened  that  the  woman 
had  to  go  to  court  in  the  morning,  and  came 
at  ten  instead   of   eight,  or  again  the  visitor 


THE  BREADWINNER  37 

let  her  off  early,  but  she  always  paid  her  for 
the  whole  day.  The  visitor  was  advised  that 
in  the  long  run  it  was  unwise  not  to  pay  her 
by  the  hour,  as  was  the  custom,  but  she  was 
not  convinced  until,  having  got  work  for  her 
among  her  neighbors,  they  complained  that  she 
came  at  ten  instead  of  eight,  and  expected  pay 
for  the  whole  day,  and  they  would  not  employ 
her  longer.  The  relief  the  visitor  gave,  dis- 
guised as  pay,  defeated  her  efforts  to  help 
the  woman  to  self-support."^ 

Bad  habits  as  a  cause  of  unemployment  will  i 
be  considered  in  the  next  chapter.  As  to  the 
man  who  loses  his  work  through  bad  temper, 
it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  there  are  many 
degrees  of  badness  of  temper,  and  the  bad  tem- 
per that  comes  from  worry  or  ill  health  must 
be  carefully  distinguished  from  innate  ugliness. 
Lack  of  references,  another  cause  of  unemploy- 
ment, does  not  always  mean  a  bad  record. 
Unskilled  workers  are  often  personally  un- 
known to  their  employers,  and  the  knowledge 
that  a  visitor  can  acquire  by  testing  a  worker 
may   become   a   great   help   to  him.     When  a 

1 "  Charities  Review,"  Vol.  II,  p.  54. 


38        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

man  has  some  physical  defect,  such  as  an  im- 
pediment in  his  speech,  or  a  crippled  arm,  only 
one  who  takes  a  personal  interest  in  him  can 
overcome  the  prejudice  created  by  his  defect. 
Often  such  people  have  qualities  that  would 
recommend  them,  but  they  are  awkward  in 
pleading  their  own  cause  or  in  finding  their 
right  niche. 

The  following  illustrations  of  timely  help  in 
finding  employment  are  taken  from  the  Twenty- 
eighth  Report  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  of  London.  ^  "  One  was  a  quiet,  honest 
young  fellow,  a  gardener,  who  had  lately  come 
out  of  a  lunatic  asylum,  his  insanity  being  due, 
it  appeared,  to  ear  trouble,  involving  a  painful 
operation.  He  had  been  some  months  in  the 
asylum,  and  on  coming  out  was  at  some  loss  to 
obtain  regular  employment.  The  Committee, 
having  thoroughly  investigated  the  case  and 
satisfied  themselves  of  the  safety  of  recorti- 
mending  the  young  man,  issued  a  circular  to 
gardeners  and  nurserymen,  which  got  him  a 
job  within  a  week.  The  other  man  had  been 
noticed  in  the  infirmary  —  a  big,  strong  fellow, 
^p.  II. 


THE  BREADWINNER  39 

most  of  his  life  a  seaman,  and  part  of  it  on 
board  an  American  man-of-war,  till  he  met  with 
an  accident  resulting  in  the  loss  of  one  of  his 
legs.  Then  he  had  to  come  ashore,  and  a  rest- 
less, roving  disposition  led  him  to  tramp  about 
the  country,  and  brought  him  on  one  occasion 
before  a  London  police  magistrate  for  attempt- 
ing to  commit  suicide.  Inquiry  showed  that 
the  man  could  work  hard,  and,  strange  to  say 
of  a  man  over  six  feet  high  and  broad  in  pro- 
portion, was  handy  with  his  needle  at  embroid- 
ery, etc.  The  Committee  kept  him  a  few  nights 
at  a  common  lodging-house  —  for  he  was  home- 
less since  leaving  the  infirmary  —  and  then  by 
great  good  fortune  got  him  work  at  a  tent  and 
sail  maker's,  where  now,  some  half  a  year 
later,  he  is  earning  his  3^.  6d.  a  day.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  neither  of  these  men  was  able- 
bodied.  The  Society  does  not  try  to  find  work 
for  ordinary,  able-bodied  men." 

Ignorance  of  English  has  been  given  as 
another  cause  of  lack  of  employment,  but  this 
is  not  irremovable.  "  After  many  days'  search- 
ing, work  was  found  for  Mr.  H.  and  his  son, 
whose  ignorance  of  our  language  was  so  entire 


40        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

that  they  failed  to  get  employment,  and  were 
in  despair.  At  the  earnest  request  of  the 
visitor,  a  furniture  dealer  consented  to  take 
them  on  trial ;  and  they  proved  so  satisfactory 
that  they  have  now  been  employed  a  year,  and 
their  pay  increased."  ^ 

A  few  cautions  are  necessary.  The  charities 
of  a  large  city  often  attract  from  the  country 
those  for  whom  there  is  no  economic  place. 
Our  immigration  laws  have  allowed  many  to 
come  to  America  for  whom  there  is  no  place, 
and  charity  has  kept  them  alive  here,  know- 
ing the  while  that  they  are  forcing  down  the 
standard  of  living  among  our  poor,  and  compli- 
cating the  problem  incalculably  at  every  turn. 
But,  as  concerns  interstate  emigration,  and  the 
migration  from  country  to  city,  charity  should 
not  be  so  helpless.  It  is  within  our  power  to 
refuse,  by  charitable  aid,  to  settle  the  man  who 
cannot  settle  himself  in  a  community  where  he 
does  not  belong.  It  is  often  doing  other  work- 
ers a  wrong  to  establish  him  and  find  work  for 
him  where  he  has  no  claim.  The  attractions  of 
a   large  city  are  great  enough  without  adding 

1  Thirteenth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  42. 


THE  BREADWINNER  4 1 

any  such  artificial  help  to  overcrowding.  Our 
effort,  on  the  contrary,  should  be  to  get  back  jj, 
into  country  life  those  families  that  are  found  '^ 
to  be  really  fitted  for  it.  Advertise  in  country 
papers,  interest  friends  in  the  country  in  find- 
ing places  for  families,  and  do  not  fail  to  keep 
up  communication  either  by  letter  or  occasional 
visits  with  families  so  placed.^ 

One  more  caution.  It  helps  a  man  to  know 
that  some  one  cares  and  will  help  him  to  find 
work ;  but  it  cripples  him  to  let  him  feel  that  he 
can  sit  idle  and  let  his  friend  do  all  the  search- 
ing and  worrying.  "  Send  a  man  to  find  work, 
and  go  with  him  to  a  special  place ;  but  never 
go  from  place  to  place  seeking  it  for  him." 
Develop  his  resources,  show  an  interest  in  all 
his  efforts,  and  encourage  him  to  renewed 
effort. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  only  men  and 
men  of  business  experience  can  be  successful 
friendly  visitors  where  the  head  of  the  family 
is  concerned;  that,  in  matters  of  employment 
especially,  a  woman  visitor  is  not  capable  of 
giving  sound  advice.      It  is  undoubtedly  true 

1  See  "  Charities  Review,"  Vol.  VI,  pp.  402  sg. 


42         FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

that  such  work  could  be  better  done  if  more 
men,  instead  of  contenting  themselves  with 
service  on  charitable  boards,  would  take  the 
trouble  to  become  personally  acquainted  with 
a  few  poor  families.  This  would  be  better 
for  the  boards  and  better  for  the  men  that 
are  charitable  trustees.  But  the  woman  vis- 
itor need  not  despair.  It  is  true  that  she 
could  do  her  work  better,  as  will  appear  in 
this  book,  if  she  were  in  her  own  person  a 
lawyer,  a  sanitary  engineer,  a  trained  cook, 
a  kindergartner,  and  an  expert  financier;  but 
she  may  be  none  of  these  things  and  still  be 
a  very  good  friendly  visitor.  When  legal  com- 
plications arise,  she  will  go  to  some  friend 
who  is  a  lawyer;  when  the  children  get  into 
trouble,  she  will  consult  a  teacher,  or  an  agent 
of  the  children's  aid  society,  and,  in  the  same 
way,  the  matter  of  employment  will  send  her 
to  a  business  man,  or  some  one  who  can  advise 
her,  when  her  own  store  of  experience  is  too 
scant.  The  poor  man  often  has  a  mean  opin- 
ion of  the  judgment  of  "  charitable  ladies,"  and 
this  opinion  has  not  always  been  without  a 
degree    of    justification;    but  the  visitor   who 


THE  BREADWINNER  43 

takes  the  trouble  to  go  on  Sunday  and  get 
acquainted  with  the  men  folk,  or  makes  occa- 
sion for  them  to  come  to  her  house  from  time 
to  time,  who  proves  herself,  moreover,  not 
without  resource  or  common  sense  as  emer- 
gencies arise,  will  soon  overcome  this  prejudice 
and  become  the  friend  of  every  member  of  the 
family. 

Collateral  Readings :  "  The  Settlement  and  Municipal 
Reform,"  James  B.  Reynolds  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty- 
third  National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  1 38  sq.  "  Benev- 
olent Features  of  Trades-Unions,"  John  D.  Flannigan  in 
the  same,  pp.  \<,\sq.  "The  Ethical  Basis  of  Municipal 
Con-uption,"  Miss  Jane  Addams  in  "  International  Journal 
of  Ethics,"  for  April,  1898.  "The  Workers,"  Walter  A. 
Wyckoff.  "  Working  People  and  their  Employers,"  Wash- 
ington Gladden.  "  Problem  of  the  Unemployed,"  Hobson. 
"  The  Unemployed,"  Geoffrey  Drage.  "  Korbey^s  Fortune," 
William  T.  Elsing  in  "  Scribner's,"  Vol.  XVI,  pp.  590  sq. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   BREADWINNER   AT   HOME 

We  have  considered  the  breadwinner  as 
worker,  neighbor,  and  citizen ;  we  now  turn 
to  the  breadwinner  as  husband  and  father. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  home  is  not  only 
the  true  unit  of  society,  but  that  it  is  the 
charitable  unit  as  well,  and  that  when  we 
deal  with  anything  less  than  a  whole  family, 
we  deal  with  fractions.  Much  of  our  chari- 
table work  is  still  fractional.  It  not  infre- 
quently happens,  for  instance,  that  the  mem- 
bers of  one  poor  family  will  come  in  contact 
with  dozens  of  charitable  people  representing 
many  forms  of  charitable  activity,  and  that  none 
of  these  will  ever  have  considered  the  family 
as  a  whole.  The  Sunday-school  teacher,  the 
kindergartner,  the  day  nursery  manager,  the 
fresh  air  charity  agent,  the  district  nurse, 
the  obstetric   nurse,  the   church   almoner,  the 

44 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT  HOME  45 

city  missionary,  the  relief  agent,  the  head  of 
the  mothers*  meeting,  the  guild  teacher,  the 
manager  of  the  boys'  brigade  or  girls'  friendly, 
—  all  these  will  have  touched  the  family  at 
some  point,  but  will  never  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  make  a  picture  of  the  family  life 
as  a  whole,  and  of  the  effect  of  their  charity 
upon  it.  They  may  have  assumed  important 
responsibilities  now  and  again,  home  respon- 
sibilities that  belonged  primarily  to  members 
of  the  family,  and  helped  to  hold  the  family 
together;  but  the  chances  are  that  they  will 
none  of  them  have  worked  continuously  or 
thoroughly  enough  to  learn  from  their  blun- 
ders or  to  repair  their  mistakes. 

I  have  mentioned  home  responsibilities.  Let 
us  consider,  for  a  moment,  what  these  are. 
They  have  an  old-fashioned  and  conservative 
sound,  but  the  fundamental  facts  of  life  are 
old-fashioned.  The  man  is  still  the  head  of 
the  normal  family,  and,  as  the  head,  still  owes 
his  best  endeavor  to  secure  for  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  the  means  of  subsistence. 
The  wife's  part  in  the  family  is  to  transform 
the  means  provided  into  a  home.     The  children, 


I- 


46        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

for  their  part,  should  be  teachable  and  obedient ; 
and,  as  their  own  strength  waxes  and  their 
parents'  wanes,  they  should  stand  ready  to 
provide  for  father  and  mother  both  the  means 
of  subsistence  and  the  home  environment. 
These  are  the  prosaic  but  fundamental  ele- 
ments of  home  life,  and,  when  they  are  lack- 
ing, neither  the  marriage  ceremony,  nor  the 
sanctions  of  law  and  custom,  can  prevent  the 
home  from  becoming  a  sham  home,  a  breed- 
ing place  of  sin  and  social  disorder. 

It  is  my  misfortune  that,  in  attempting  to 
meet  the  needs  of  those  who  visit  the  poor, 
I  must  dwell  more  upon  the  difficulties  than 
upon  the  encouragements  of  such  work.  There 
are  many  poor  homes  where  every  essential 
element  of  home  life  exists.  The  home  may 
be  of  the  humblest  sort,  —  it  may  be  in  one 
room,  —  but,  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  the  man 
is  struggling  to  provide  for  his  family;  the 
woman  is  striving  to  make  the  little  shelter 
homelike;  and  the  children  are  learning  that, 
out  of  the  simplest  elements,  a  certain  measure 
of  peace,  orderliness  and  growth  may  be  won. 
The  home  relation  is  right,  and,  though   sick- 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT  HOME  47 

ness,  industrial  depression,  accident,  or  some 
other  of  the  misfortunes  that  assail  us  from 
without  may  have  made  charitable  relief  nec- 
essary for  a  long  time,  the  elements  of  suc- 
cessful charitable  aid  are  there,  because  the 
home  life  works  with  the  visitor  to  win  back 
health  and  independence. 

There  is  a  deep  satisfaction  in  protecting 
such  families  from  the  careless,  patronizing 
charity  of  the  thoughtless  almsgiver,  whose 
unsteady  hand  would  give  them  a  feast  to-day 
and  a  famine  to-morrow.  There  is  deep  satis- 
faction in  cooperating  with  such  families  to 
conquer  difficulties.  There  is  a  deeper  satis- 
faction, however,  in  turning  a  sham  home  into 
a  real  one;  in  teaching  the  slatternly,  irre- 
sponsible mother  the  pleasure  of  a  cleanly, 
well-ordered  home;  in  helping  a  man  who  has 
lost  his  sense  of  responsibility  toward  wife  and 
children  to  regain  it.  Even  at  the  risk  of 
drawing  a  too  gloomy  picture,  I  dwell  in  this 
chapter,  therefore,  upon  the  husband  and 
father  who  is  either  lazy  or  drunken  or 
both. 

The  married  vagabond  has  many  character- 


48        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

istics  of  the  single  vagabond  or  tramp,  though 
he  is  usually  less  enterprising.  His  is  a  type 
peculiar  to  our  large  cities,  where  political, 
industrial,  and  charitable  conditions  have 
helped  to  make  him  what  he  is.  There  is  a 
sense  in  which  he  is  not  responsible  for  his 
faults;  but  there  is  a  sense  in  which  we  are 
none  of  us  responsible  for  ours,  and  when  we 
are  once  permanently  committed  to  this  view 
of  ourselves,  there  is  no  health  in  us.  To 
treat  the  married  vagabond  as  not  responsible, 
is  only  to  increase  his  irresponsibility. 

"  One  man  I  know  who  has  done  hardly  a 
stroke  of  work  for  years,"  says  Mrs.  Bosan- 
quet;  "during  his  wife's  periodical  confine- 
ments he  goes  off  on  the  tramp,  leaving  her 
to  take  her  chance  of  charity  coming  to  the 
rescue,  and  returns  when  she  can  get  to  work 
again.  I  have  known  fathers  who  would  send 
their  hungry  children  to  beg  food  from  their 
neighbors,  and  then  take  it  to  eat  themselves; 
and  one  I  have  known  who  would  stop  his 
children  in  the  street  and  take  their  shoes 
from  their  feet  to  pawn  for  drink.  The  nega- 
tive attitude  of    a  man  to   his  own  family  is 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT  HOME  49 

an    impossible    one;     if    responsibility    disap- 
pears, it  will  be  replaced  by  brutality."  ^ 

And  again,  from  the  same  book :  "  Take  a 
case  which  is  constantly  recurring.  A  man  has 
let  himself  drift  into  bad  ways :  he  neglects 
his  work,  spends  his  money  for  drink,  cares 
less  and  less  about  his  family ;  the  children 
become  more  and  more  neglected  and  starved. 
At  last  some  charitable  agency  steps  in.  '  The 
man  is  hopeless,'  it  says,  *  there  is  no  question 
of  relieving  him  of  responsibility,  for  he  has 
already  lost  all  sense  of  that,  and  matters  can- 
not be  made  worse  by  our  interference.  The 
children  must  not  be  allowed  to  suffer  for  their 
father's  sins ;  we  will  feed  and  clothe  and  edu- 
cate them,  and  so  give  them  a  chance  of  doing 
better  than  their  parents.'  All  very  well,  if 
this  were  the  only  family;  and  we  should  all 
rush  joyfully  to  the  work  of  rescuing  the  little 
ones.  But  next  door  on  either  side  are  men 
with  the  same  downward  path  so  easy  before 
them,  and  to  a  large  extent  restrained  from 
entering  upon  it  by  the  thought,  *  What  will 
become    of    the    children } '      This    restraining 

1 "  Rich  and  Poor,"  p.  105. 


so        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

influence  will  break  down  much  more  rapidly 
for  the  knowledge  that  Smith's  children  are 
better  cared  for  since  he  gave  up  the  battle, 
and  so  the  mischief  spreads  down  the  street 
like  an  epidemic."  ^ 

The  method  to  be  followed  in  dealing  with 
the  family  of  the  married  vagabond  must  de- 
pend upon  circumstances,  but  it  will  usually 
be  necessary  to  let  him  find  out  what  the 
charitable  community  expects  of  him,  and  this 
he  will  hardly  do  unless  the  charitable  with- 
hold all  aid  except  in  the  form  of  work.  A 
visitor  will  not  succeed  in  bringing  this  about 
until  he  has  taken  the  trouble  to  find  out  what 
sources  of  relief  are  open  to  the  family,  and 
has  persuaded  each  source  to  withhold  relief. 
Visitors  often  hesitate  to  urge  this  radical 
measure,  fearing  that  it  will  bring  suffering 
upon  the  wife  and  children ;  but  the  plain  fact 
is  that  the  family  of  a  lazy  man  must  suffer, 
that  no  amount  of  material  relief  can  prevent 
their  suffering. 

On  this  disputed  point  I  venture  to  quote 
what  I  have  written  elsewhere :   "  Let  us  con- 

ipp.  72X^. 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT   HOME  51 

sider  the  chances  that  a  married  vagabond's 
children  have  of  escaping  suffering  in  a  large 
city.  .  .  .  They  are  born  into  a  world  where 
the  father  is  inconsiderate  and  abusive  of  the 
mother;  where  cleanliness,  fresh  air,  and  good 
food  are  not  assured  to  them;  where  all  the 
economic  laws  of  the  civilized  world  seem 
topsy-turvy;  where  things  sometimes  come 
miraculously,  without  any  return  for  them  in 
labor,  and  where  they  sometimes  do  not  come 
at  all.  They  are  born,  moreover,  with  dis- 
eased bodies,  often  with  the  taint  of  alcohol- 
ism in  their  veins ;  too  often  with  some  other 
inherited  malady,  such  as  epilepsy  or  unsound 
mind,  as  a  direct  result  of  parental  excesses. 
How  can  we  say  that  we  *  do  not  let  children 
suffer,'  so  long  as  alms  keeps  together  thou- 
sands of  these  so-called  homes  in  our  large 
cities,  and,  worst  of  all,  so  long  as  into  these 
homes  thousands  of  helpless,  unfortunate 
babies  are  born  every  year  ?  If  I  were  one 
of  these  same  little  ones,  and  could  see  what 
the  charitable  people  were  about,  I  should 
feel  inclined  to  say :  '  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
you  have  supplied  the  doctor,  and  the  nurse, 


52        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

and  the  fuel,  and  the  sick  diet ;  doubtless  you 
mean  it  kindly,  but  I  have  been  assisted  into 
a  world  where  you  don't  intend  to  give  me 
a  fair  chance.  You  know  that  my  father 
won't  work  for  me,  that  my  mother  has  no 
time  to  care  for  me,  and  that  my  brothers  and 
sisters  must  fare  worse  than  ever,  now  that 
there's  one  more  mouth  to  feed.  Moreover, 
my  nerves  are  none  of  the  strongest,  and  my 
body  none  of  the  stoutest.  Unless  you  intend 
to  do  a  great  deal  more  for  me,  I'm  sorry  you 
didn't  do  less.  Frankly,  I  don't  thank  you.'  "  ^ 
Often  when  a  man  finds  that  charitable 
people  are  quite  in  earnest,  that  they  really 
intend  to  place  upon  his  shoulders  the  respon- 
sibility of  his  own  family,  he  will  bestir  him- 
self and  go  to  work.  He  is  not  likely  to  stay 
and  let  his  family  starve.  In  fact,  I  have 
often  found  that  the  withholding  of  relief 
from  the  family  of  the  married  vagabond  has 
the  immediate  effect  of  improving  the  mate- 
rial condition  of  the  family  —  the  man  has 
either  found  work  or  left  home.  This  method 
of    being    charitable    requires   courage,   but   if 

1"  Charities  Review,"  Vol.  VI,  pp.  121  sq. 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT  HOME  53 

people  would  only  see  how  wretchedness  is 
perpetuated  by  the  temporizing  method,  it 
would  require  courage  to  give  small  doles. 

In  many  states  there  are  laws  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  man  that  will  not  support  his 
family.  Some  of  these  enactments  are  of  very 
little  use,  but  several  of  the  New  England 
states  have  effective  laws.^  When  a  complete 
i  cutting  off  of  charitable  supplies  fails  to  bring 
a  man  to  some  sense  of  his  duty,  the  visitor 
should  try  to  have  him  punished  by  the  courts. 
The  evidence  of  one  who  has  faithfully  visited 
a  family  for  a  long  time  is  very  valuable  in  such 
cases,  though  conviction  is  often  difficult  to 
secure  for  lack  of  the  wife's  testimony.  If 
the  married  vagabond  that  has  been  punished 
is  still  incurably  lazy  and  irresponsible,  the 
visitor  should  not  allow  his  desire  to  reform 
the  man  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  children,  born  and  unborn.  The 
wife's  duty  to  her  husband  is  a  very  sacred 
one,  but  so  is  her  duty  to  her  children.     When 

^  See  Proceedings  of  the  Twenty-second  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction,  New  Haven,  1895,  PP* 
SHsg, 


54        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

all  Other  measures  fail,  the  home  should  be 
broken  up. 

Only  those  who  have  had  wide  charitable  ex- 
perience will  be  likely  to  consider  this  separation 
of  man  and  wife  justifiable.  Says  Mrs.  Jose- 
phine Shaw  Lowell :  "  I  have  not  the  slight- 
est doubt  that  it  is  a  wrongs  and  a  great  wrong, 
to  give  help  to  the  family  of  a  drunkard  or 
an  immoral  man  who  will  not  support  them. 
Unless  the  woman  will  remove  her  children 
from  his  influence,  it  should  be  understood  that 
no  public  or  private  charity,  and  no  charitable 
individual,  has  the  right  to  help  perpetuate 
and  maintain  such  families  as  are  brought  forth 
by  drunkards  and  vicious  men  and  women."  ^ 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  advocates 
of  separation  as  a  last  resort  do  not  approve 
of  divorce,  which  would  only  multiply  sham 
homes.  They  recognize  in  certain  cases  "  the 
sad  fact  of  incurability,"  and  are  prepared  to 
take  courageous  measures  in  order  that  the 
innocent  may  not  suffer  with  the  guilty .^ 

1  "  Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity,"  p.  105. 

2  See  on  this  subject  the  Proceedings  of  the  Twenty-fourth 
National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction  at  Toronto, 
1897*  PP-  5  s^-' 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT   HOME  55 

The  following  history  of  a  Baltimore  married 
vagabond  will  illustrate  the  need  of  separation 
in  certain  cases:  Several  years  ago  the  Balti- 
more Charity  Organization  Society  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  family  of  a  good-looking 
German  shoemaker,  who  had  married  a  plain, 
hard-working  woman  some  years  his  senior. 
Soon  after  their  marriage  he  began  to  neglect 
his  work,  and,  depending  more  and  more  on 
his  wife's  exertions  for  his  support,  he  took  to 
drink.  Child-bearing  often  incapacitated  the 
wife  for  work,  and  church  and  charitable 
friends  aided  at  such  times.  When  the  sixth 
child  was  a  year  old,  he  deserted  his  family 
for  a  while,  but  came  back  again,  after  having 
been  in  jail  for  disorderly  conduct.  The  Char- 
ity Organization  Society,  seeing  no  chance  of 
reforming  the  man,  suggested  that  his  wife 
leave  him,  but  the  German  pastor  strongly 
objected  to  any  separation  of  man  and  wife, 
and  nothing  was  done.  A  discouraging  aspect 
of  the  situation  was  that  the  man  taught  his 
children  to  deceive  the  hard-working  mother. 
When  the  seventh  baby  was  born,  and  charity 
had  supplied  a  registered  nurse,   baby   linen, 


56        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

a  doctor,  fuel,  and  food,  it  was  discovered  that 
the  man  had  sold  the  fuel  supplied  by  the  re- 
lief society,  and  had  gone  on  a  spree.  He 
was  a  good  workman,  and  could  always  have 
work  when  sober,  but  even  when  at  work  he 
neglected  to  provide  properly  for  his  family. 
Stung  at  last  into  active  resistance,  his  wife 
had  him  arrested  for  non-support.  While  the 
man  awaited  trial,  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  removed  his  family,  found  work  for 
the  wife  where  she  could  keep  three  of  her 
children,  placed  one  with  a  relative,  and  two 
others  temporarily  in  institutions.  When  he 
was  released,  he  had  no  family  to  attract  char- 
itable aid,  and  was  thrown,  for  the  first  time 
in  many  years,  entirely  upon  his  own  re- 
sources. 

Many  good  people  may  think  that  to  deprive 
a  man  of  family  ties  is  to  hasten  his  downfall ; 
but  what  downfall  could  be  more  complete 
than  the  downfall  of  the  man  who  not  only 
permits  his  wife  to  support  him,  but  abuses 
her  and  his  children }  In  making  this  no 
longer  possible  we  are  sometimes  doing  the 
one  thing  that  can  be  done  to  save  him  from 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT  HOME  57 

spreading  the  contagion  of  his  brutality,   and 
so  assuming  a  still  heavier  burden  of  sin. 

There  are  many  charitable  visitors  to  whom 
the  very  thought  of  strong  drink  is  so  offen- 
sive, to  whom  everything  connected  with  the 
saloon  seems  so  brutal  and  degraded,  that  they 
are  unable  to  make  allowance  for  national, 
neighborhood,  and  family  traditions  in  judg- 
ing a  man's  habits.  It  sometimes  happens 
that  a  whole  family  are  condemned  as  "frauds" 
because  they  drink  beer  for  dinner,  or  because 
the  man  of  the  house  has  been  seen  to  enter  a 
saloon.  On  no  subject,  perhaps,  are  charity 
workers  so  divided  as  on  the  question  of  how 
best  to  deal  with  the  drink  evil.  .  Here,  if 
anywhere,  fanaticism  is  excusable,  perhaps ; 
but  here,  as  everywhere,  the  friendly  visitor 
must  be  on  guard  against  personal  prejudice 
and  a  hasty  jumping  at  conclusions.  "At 
night  all  cats  are  gray,"  says  the  old  proverb, 
and  it  is  only  the  benighted  social  reformer 
that  thinks  of  all  who  drink  as  drunkards,  and 
of  all  places  where  liquor  is  sold  as  dens  of 
vice.      The   saloon   is   still  .the   workingman's 


58        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

club,  and,  until  some  satisfactory  substitute 
is  found  for  it,  all  our  denunciations  will  fail 
to  banish  it.  It  is  none  the  less  true  that,  of 
all  personal  habits,  the  drink  habit  stands 
next  to  licentiousness  as  a  cause  of  poverty 
and  degeneration. 

"The  problem  of  intemperance  meets  us  in 
less  than  half  the  families  that  we  know,"  says 
the  Secretary  of  the  Boston  Associated  Chari- 
ties, "but  it  is  that  half  which  gives  us  the 
most  concern.  There  are  many  ways  of  dealing 
with  the  drunkards  and  with  their  families,  and 
the  remedy  must  be  separately  chosen  for  each 
case.  Some  of  our  friends  are  impatient  with 
all  these  partial  remedies  and  will  use  none  of 
them,  waiting  until  they  can  sweep  out  of  the 
State  the  alcohol  which  seems  to  them  the 
whole  cause  of  the  trouble.  But  if  it  were  all 
taken  away  to-morrow,  I  feel  sure  we  should 
find  this  also  only  a  partial  remedy,  and  that 
the  same  want  of  self-control  which  makes  men 
and  women  drunkards  would  drive  some  of 
them  to-morrow  to  other  and  perhaps  worse 
stimulants.  So,  while  I  hope  and  believe  that 
slowly  and  steadily  the  sentiment  of  individuals 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT   HOME  59 

is  growing  toward  total  abstinence,  and  that 
in  the  course  of  years,  generations,  perhaps,  it 
will  become  the  law  of  the  State,  I  believe  in 
working  man  to  man  and  woman  to  woman 
in  building  up  and  strengthening  character 
as  the  chief  safeguard  against  so  great  an 
evil."  1 

The  first  thing,  in  dealing  with  an  individual 
case  of  drunkenness,  is  to  find  out  its  history. 
Is  it  the  cause  of  poverty  and  misfortune,  or 
have  poverty  and  misfortune  caused  it.?  Is 
there  an  inherited  tendency  to  drink,  or  did  the 
habit  originate  in  some  other  bad  personal 
habit.?  Is  bad  health  the  cause.?  Has  un- 
healthy or  dangerous  employment  anything  to 
do  with  it.?  Is  bad  home  cooking  one  of  the 
causes  .?  Some  one  has  said  that  the  best  tem- 
perance lecturer  is  the  properly  filled  dinner- 
pail.  Worry  from  lack  of  work,  and  the  need 
of  some  warm  stimulant  after  exposure,  are 
frequent  causes;  and  they  are  both  removable 
with  friendly  help.  A  man  who  is  honestly 
trying   to   break    himself    of   the   drink   habit 

^  Miss  Z.  D.  Smith  in  Report  of  Union  Relief  Association 
of  Springfield,  Mass.,  1887. 


6o       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

deserves   all  the   patience,   sympathy,  and   re- 
sourcefulness at  our  command. 

When  a  man  is  sensitive  and  proud,  the  vis- 
itor can  often  be  most  helpful  by  simply  show- 
ing his  sympathy.  **  A  travelling  salesman  who 
became  addicted  to  drink  lost  a  good  situation 
through  this  habit.  He  had  a  wife  and  seven 
children,  all  the  children  being  too  young  to  earn 
anything.  The  wife  was  very  brave  and  sup- 
ported the  family  as  long  as  she  was  able. 
When  the  case  came  to  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society  the  rent  was  in  arrears  and  the 
landlord  threatening.  We  sent  a  gentleman  as 
our  friendly  visitor  in  the  case,  and  after  great 
persistence  and  repeated  failures  he  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  head  of  the  family  sober  for  a 
few  days.  The  man  was  proud,  and  much  hurt 
at  having  to  accept  charity,  but  his  family  was 
suffering,  and  there  was  no  alternative.  The 
aid  was  provided  in  so  delicate  a  manner  that 
the  man's  heart  was  touched,  and  he  became 
very  grateful  to  the  visitor  for  his  unflagging 
and  kindly  interest.  They  spent  their  even- 
ings together  frequently.  The  man  began 
to   drink  less,   at  last  stopped  altogether,  and 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT   HOME  6i 

now  has  secured  permanent  work  and  is  doing 
well."  1 

There  is  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  value 
of   pledges.      It  would  seem  unwise,  however, 
when  a  man  has  broken  a  pledge,  to  encourage^, 
him  to  renew  it.     Let  him  try  a  promise  to  him-  ^ 
self,  and  prove  that  he  can  be  a  man  without 
artificial  props. 

In  more  stubborn  cases  the  law  must  be 
invoked.  Sometimes  it  is  well  to  try  several 
remedies  at  once,  asking  the  police  to  threaten 
arrest,  following  this  up  at  once  with  an  invita- 
tion to  join  some  temperance  society  (preferably 
one  connected  with  the  man's  church),  and  try- 
ing at  the  same  time  to  substitute  some  new 
interest.  Milder  measures  failing,  it  will  some- 
times be  necessary  to  cut  off  all  supplies  of 
relief,  and,  this  again  failing,  to  take  steps  to 
protect  wife  and  children  from  the  brutalizing 
influence  of  the  man  by  breaking  up  the  home. 

There  are  many  causes  of  the  drink  evil,  as  I 
have  tried  to  show,  but,  after  every  allowance 
has  been  made,  the  chief  cause  will  often  be 
found  in  the  selfishness  of   the   human  heart. 

1  "Charities  Record,"  Baltimore,  Vol.  I,  No.  I. 


62        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

There  are  men  who  do  not  care  to  be  cured  of 
drunkenness,  who  feel  no  shame  for  the  misery 
and  degradation  brought  upon  their  families. 
Here  again  the  "  sad  fact  of  incurability  "  must 
be  recognized.  It  is  folly  to  let  such  men  dis- 
cover that,  through  our  charitable  interest  in 
their  families,  we  will  either  directly  or  in- 
directly pay  their  whiskey  bills,  or  will  assume 
the  burdens  that  they  deliberately  shirk.  A 
Committee  on  Intemperance,  reporting  to  the 
Ward  VIII.  Conference  of  the  Boston  Asso- 
ciated Charities  in  1886,  called  attention  to 
this  aspect  of  the  question.  "  The  committee, 
however,  say  that,  in  their  opinion,  the  question 
of  moral  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  intem- 
perate, and  also,  in  its  degree,  on  the  part  of 
those  who,  by  gifts  or  other  aid,  make  intem- 
perance easy,  is  too  much  lost  sight  of ;  and 
they  believe  that  the  refusal  of  all  aid  to  the 
families  of  drunkards,  outside  the  almshouse, 
unless  in  exceptional  cases,  would  bring  about 
a  better  state  of  opinion  and  a  juster  sense  of 
responsibility.  The  committee  add  that  it  will 
be  almost  impossible  to  make  kind-hearted 
people  believe  this,  since  they  are  more  moved 


THE  BREADWINNER  AT   HOME  63 

by  the  sight  of  present  suffering  than  by  the 
hope  of  future  permanent  improvement,  to  se- 
cure which  some  measure  of  present  suffering 
may  be  necessary."  ^ 


Collateral  Readings :  "An  Adventure  in  Philanthropy," 
Edwin  C.  Martin  in  "  Scribner's,"  Vol.  XI,  pp.  230  sq. 
"Charity  and  Home  Making,"  the  present  writer  in 
"Charities  Review,"  Vol.  VI,  No.  2.  "Married  Vaga- 
bonds," the  same,  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty-second 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  514  sq.  "Drunk- 
ards' Families,"  Rev.  W.  F.  Slocum  in  Proceedings  of 
Fifteenth  National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  131  sq. 
"The  Social  Value  of  the  Saloon,"  E.  C.  Moore  in 
"  American  Journal  of  Sociology,"  Vol.  Ill,  No.  i.  "  Sub- 
stitutes for  the  Saloon,"  F.  G.  Peabody  in  "Forum"  for 
July,  1896.  "Law  and  Drink,"  Frederick  H.  Wines  in 
"Charities  Review,"  Vol.  VII,  Nos.  3  and  4. 

1  Seventh  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  39. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   HOMEMAKER 

The  wife  brings  us  to  another  aspect  of  the 
home,  though  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated 
that  all  aspects  are  so  inextricably  interwoven 
that  they  must  be  considered  together.  When 
the  wife  takes  the  means  provided,  the  raw 
material  from  which  a  home  is  to  be  made,  she 
engages  in  a  very  complicated  form  of  manu- 
facture, including  in  its  processes  the  buying, 
preparation,  and  serving  of  food,  the  care  of 
the  household  possessions,  the  buying,  making, 
and  care  of  clothing,  the  training  of  children, 
and  many  minor  departments.  These  are  only 
processes,  however,  and,  unless  the  maker  have 
an  ideal  picture  in  her  mind  of  what  a  home 
should  be,  neither  some  nor  all  of  these  pro- 
cesses will  make  a  home. 

In  dealing  with  the  homemaker,  the  friendly 
visitor  becomes  more  directly  a  teacher,  though 
64 


THE   HOMEMAKER  65 

it  is  often  necessary  that  she  should  first  be  a 
learner.  The  agent  of  a  New  York  charity 
tells  of  a  friendly  visitor  who  was  consulted  by 
the  agent  about  a  family  applying  for  relief. 
They  were  found  to  have  an  income  of  ;^20.oo 
a  week.  "  Well,"  said  the  visitor,  "  that  is  very 
little  money  on  which  to  raise  a  family."  The 
agent  felt  that  this  visitor  had  not  only  a  great 
deal  to  learn,  but  a  great  deal  to  unlearn. 

Not  every  visitor  is  skilled  in  buying  and 
preparing  food,  or  in  arranging  a  household 
budget,  and  the  visitor  that  is  skilful  in  doing 
this  on  one  scale  of  expenditure  may  be  quite 
ignorant  and  helpless  in  dealing  with  another 
and  much  smaller  scale.  One  who  is  really  in 
earnest,  however,  in  the  desire  to  help  another, 
will  never  give  up  because  there  are  difficulties 
to  overcome.  The  visitor  may  not  know,  but 
as  compared  with  the  homemaker  in  a  poor 
family,  has  far  more  time  and  a  greater  fa- 
cility, perhaps,  in  learning.  The  visitor's  best 
teachers  are  friends  that  have  had  experience, 
and  the  poor  themselves.  One  can  learn  a 
great  deal  from  the  more  frugal  and  industrious 
of  the  very  poor,  and  these  are  proud  to  explain 


66        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

their  small  economies,  when  our  reasons  for 
wishing  to  learn  are  made  clear  to  them. 

Lacking  these  teachers,  there  are  books, 
though  books  have  the  disadvantage  of  never 
meeting  the  needs  of  any  one  locality.  Varia- 
tions of  climate,  custom,  and  the  local  markets 
make  specific  suggestions  about  buying  difficult. 
For  this  reason  I  shall  not  attempt  to  go  into 
detail,  but  suggest  that,  as  our  relations  with 
our  poor  friends  should  be  as  natural  as  possi- 
ble, when  we  do  not  know  anything,  it  is  always 
best  to  frankly  say  so,  and  then  think  out  with 
them  some  way  of  learning.  For  instance,  it 
would  be  natural  enough  for  a  visitor  to  say  to 
the  homemaker :  '*  We  both  feel  that  there  is  a 
lot  to  learn  about  the  best  way  of  buying  and 
preparing  food.  I  have  an  acquaintance  that 
has  made  a  study  of  the  subject,  and,  with  your 
permission,  I  am  going  to  bring  her  here,  to 
give  us  both  some  suggestions." 

Scientific  dietaries  have  been  prepared  with  a 
view  to  teaching  the  poor  to  use  nutritious  and 
economical  foods.  Professor  J.  J.  Atwater, 
Edward  Atkinson,  Mrs.  Juliet  Corson,  and  Mrs. 
Mary  Hinman  Abel  are  authorities  on  this  sub- 


THE   HOMEMAKER  6^ 

ject.  The  Bureau  of  Associated  Charities, 
Orange,  N.  J.,  publishes  a  leaflet  on  foods,  pre- 
pared by  Mrs.  S.  E.  Tenney  of  Brooklyn.  Tak- 
ing Orange  prices,  a  dietary  is  given  for  a  family 
of  six  (man,  wife,  and  four  children) ,  at  a  cost 
of  1^3.31  per  week.  In  urging  changes  in  diet 
upon  poor  families,  it  is  first  necessary  to  be- 
come well  acquainted  with  the  families,  and, 
even  then,  to  introduce  any  innovations  slowly, 
one  thing  at  a  time.  A  friendly  visitor  in  Balti- 
more has  tried  the  plan  of  meeting  her  friends 
in  market,  and  pointing  out  to  them  the  best 
cuts  of  meat,  the  best  place  to  buy  vegetables, 
etc.  But  her  greatest  success  in  introducing  new 
dishes  has  been  through  the  children.  She  has 
been  wise  enough  to  secure  the  cooperation  of 
her  cook,  and,  by  inviting  the  children  into  her 
own  kitchen  on  Saturday  mornings,  has  taught 
them  the  best  way  to  prepare  simple  dishes.  She 
finds  that  scientific  dietaries  too  often  ignore  the 
tastes  and  prejudices  of  the  poor.  It  is  best 
to  begin  by  teaching  them  to  prepare  well  the 
things  that  they  like.  If  they  are  devoted  to 
strong  tea,  for  instance,  we  can  teach  them  first 
of  all  that  it  should  not  boil  on  the  stove  all  day. 


68        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

When  we  are  dealing  with  questions  of  taste, 
whether  in  manners,  diet,  clothing,  or  household 
decoration,  we  cannot  afford  to  take  the  attitude 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Honeythunder,  "Come  up 
and  be  blessed,  or  I'll  knock  you  down ! " 
We  may  find  a  preference  for  cheap  finery  very 
exasperating,  but  our  own  example  is  far  more 
likely  to  be  followed  in  the  long  run  if  we  do 
not  insist  upon  it  too  much  at  first.  Begin  by 
teaching  the  homemaker  to  mend  and  keep  the 
clothing  in  good  order,  and  give  her  some  of 
your  own  experience  as  to  which  materials  wear 
the  best. 

One  of  the  important  items  of  expenditure  is 
fuel,  and  the  first  thing  to  find  out  under  this 
head  is  whether  kerosene  or  any  other  inflam- 
mable fluid  is  ever  used  to  start  the  fire.  Ex- 
perienced housekeepers  say  that  it  is  good 
economy  to  have  stoves  with  small  gratings  and 
then  buy  a  good  grade  of  pea  coal,  which,  if 
carefully  used,  is  cheaper  and  quite  as  economi- 
cal as  more  expensive  grades.  The  poor  often 
prefer  expensive,  free-burning  coals  because 
they  are  little  trouble.  A  practical  engineer 
says  that,  in  burning  pea  coal,  the  fire  must  be 


THE  HOMEMAKER  69 

kept  clean,  not  by  violent  shaking,  but  by  a 
straight  poker  used  on  the  bottom  of  the  fire 
only.  Remove  clinkers  through  the  top.  Add 
coal  in  small  quantities,  and,  when  not  using  the 
fire,  give  it  a  good  cleaning  at  the  bottom, 
spread  enough  coal  to  make  about  three  inches 
of  fuel  in  all,  put  on  the  draught  until  kindled, 
add  four  inches  of  fresh  coal,  allowing  the 
draught  to  remain  on  until  the  gas  is  burned  off, 
then  shut  the  bottom  draughts,  take  the  lids 
half-way  off,  and  open  the  top  slide,  if  the  stove 
has  one. 

In  many  of  the  homes  into  which  visitors 
go,  cleanliness  seems  the  greatest  lack.  Some- 
times the  mother  has  lost  heart ;  sometimes 
she  has  never  known  what  cleanliness  was. 
Tact  is  necessary  here  to  avoid  hurting  the 
feelings  of  our  poor  friends,  though  some  are 
far  more  sensitive  than  others.  The  Boston 
woman  whose  visitor  sent  soap,  scrubbing 
brushes,  mop,  and  pail,  with  the  message  that 
she  was  coming  on  the  morrow  to  use  them, 
took  this  very  broad  hint  and  made  the  home 
tidy  for  the  first  time  in  many  months,  but  it 
is   unnecessary  to   say   that   all    poor    people 


70       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

could  not  be  dealt  with  in  this  way.  One 
visitor  went,  when  she  knew  the  mother  would 
be  absent,  and  helped  the  children  to  clean 
the  house.  Another  found  that,  if  the  family 
knew  she  was  coming,  the  home  was  set  in 
order;  so  she  was  careful  for  a  time  to  come 
at  stated  intervals,  then  tried  irregular  visits, 
and  was  finally  rewarded  by  finding  the  home 
presentable  at  all  times. 

**  Mr.  William  D.  Howells,  who  during  his 
recent  residence  in  Boston  gave  much  of  his 
valuable  time  as  a  visitor  for  the  Associated 
Charities,  was  amused  one  day  to  be  told,  on 
knocking  at  the  door  of  a  house  where  he  had 
studiously  endeavored  to  inspire  a  sense  of  clean- 
liness, that  he  could  not  come  in,  as  the  floor  had 
just  been  washed  and  he  might  soil  it  again."  ^ 

Housecleaning  seasons  are  not  always  ob- 
served in  poor  homes.  The  visitor  can  call 
attention  to  the  value  of  whitewash  as  a  clean- 
ing agent,  and  if  once  taught  to  do  it,  the 
children  take  pleasure  in  putting  it  on. 

1  Mrs.  Roger  Wolcott  in  Proceedings  of  International  Con- 
gress of  Charities  at  Chicago,  Volume  on  "Organization  of 
Charities,"  p.  no. 


THE   HOMEMAKER  71 

It  is  not  merely  as  the  adviser  about  house- 
hold matters  that  the  visitor  can  be  helpful 
to  the  homemaker.  Many  women  in  poor 
neighborhoods  lead  starved,  sordid  lives,  and  - 
long  for  genuine  friendliness  and  sympathy. 
A  friend  who  would  be  helpful  to  them  must 
exercise  the  same  self-restraint  that  our  own 
friends  exercise  with  us.  The  friends  who 
encourage  us  to  exaggerate  our  troubles  and 
difficulties  are  not  our  best  friends :  theirs  is 
a  friendship  that  tends  to  weaken  our  mora] 
fibre.  But  the  sympathy  that  the  poor  need 
and  all  of  us  need  is  the  sympathy  that  makea 
us  feel  stronger,  the  sympathy  that  is  farthest 
removed  from  sentimentality.  We  should  be. 
willing  to  listen  patiently  to  the  homemaker's 
troubles,  and  should  strive  to  see  the  world 
from  her  point  of  view,  but  at  the  same  time 
we  should  help  her  to  take  a  cheerful  and 
courageous  tone.  One  unfailing  help,  when 
our  poor  friends  dwell  too  much  upon  their 
own  troubles,  is  to  tell  them  ours.  Here,  too, 
indirect  suggestion  is  powerful.  The  wife, 
in  her  attitude  toward  husband  and  children, 
will    unconsciously   imitate    our    own    attitude 


72        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

toward  them.  As  Miss  Jane  Addams  says,  if 
the  visitor  kisses  the  baby  and  makes  much 
of  it,  the  mother  will  do  the  same.  A  Balti- 
more visitor  has  cured  one  tired  woman  of 
scolding  her  husband  in  season  and  out  of 
season  by  diverting  her  attention  to  other 
things,  and  by  seeking  her  cooperation  in 
plans  for  improving  the  man's  habits. 

A  New  York  visitor  tells  of  a  woman  living 
in  a  two-room  tenement  who  is  regarded  as 
a  marvel  by  her  husband's  friends  because 
she  makes  a  point  of  having  a  specially  good 
meal  one  night  in  the  week,  and  it  is  under- 
stood that  her  husband  can  bring  his  friends 
home  to  supper  on  that  night  without  giving 
her  warning.  The  home  is  very  humble,  but 
she  has  learned  the  wisdom  of  making  it  a 
real  home  for  her  husband,  and  one  that  he 
can  be  proud  of. 

So  far,  I  have  ignored  the  fact  that,  in 
\  the  poor  home,  the  woman  is  often  the  bread- 
winner as  well  as  the  homemaker.  I  wish  it 
were  possible  to  ignore  the  further  fact  that 
charitable  visitors,  finding  it  difficult  to  get 
work  for  the   man  or  finding   him    disinclined 


THE  HOMEMAKER  73 

to  take  it,  will  bestir  themselves  to  get  work 
for  the  woman  instead.  One  of  the  few  rules 
which  it  is  safe  to  follow  blindly  is  the  rule 
that  we  should  not  encourage  any  woman  to 
become  the  breadwinner  who  has  an  able- 
bodied,  unemployed  man  in  the  house.  "  Only 
harm  can  result,"  says  Mrs.  Lowell,  "if  efforts 
are  made  to  induce  the  woman  to  leave  her 
home  daily  for  work." 

Where  the  breadwinner  is  disabled,  or  the  ^ 
woman  is  a  deserted  wife  or  widow,  work  is, 
of  course,  necessary.  We  must  distinguish, 
however,  between  the  deserted  wife  and  the 
wife  whose  husband  chronically  deserts  her, 
until  her  condition  attracts  the  charitable  help 
that  he  returns  to  share.  Widows  with 
children  belong  to  a  class  with  which  charity 
has  dealt  too  harshly  in  the  past.  When  the 
woman  is  incapable  of  supporting  all  her  chil- 
dren, and  this  is  usually  the  case,  charity  has 
either  allowed  her  family  to  depend  upon  insuffi- 
cient doles  and  so  drift  into  beggary,  or  else 
has  put  all  the  children  in  orphanages.  If  the 
mother  is  a  good  mother,  capable  with  help 
of   rearing   her   children  to  independence   and 


74        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

self-support,  this  latter  is  not  only  a  cruel  but 
a  wasteful  method.  As  charity  becomes  more 
discriminating  and  resourceful,  it  will  be  pos- 
sible to  organize  pensions  for  widows  of  this 
class,  though  these  pensions  will  need  the 
careful  oversight  of  a  visitor,  who  should  see 
that  the  children  are  taught  to  bear  the  family 
burden  as  they  become  older. 

There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  about 
the  value  of  mothers'  meetings  for  women 
whose  home  duties  prevent  them  from  attend- 
ing church  on  Sunday.  If  these  meetings 
confined  themselves  to  providing  what  the 
church  service  provides,  —  a  chance  for  spirit- 
ual uplifting  and  refreshment,  —  there  could 
be  no  possible  objection  to  them;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, many  mothers'  meetings  strive  to  at- 
tract and  hold  members  by  such  small  devices 
as  paying  them  for  very  bad  sewing,  or  mak- 
ing small  gifts,  or  selling  things  below  cost. 
These  attractions,  small  as  they  are,  lead 
many  women  to  neglect  their  home  duties, 
and  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  one  woman  to 
belong  to  three  mothers'  meetings  of  three 
different  denominations,  which  take  her  away 


THE  HOMEMAKER  75 

from  home  three  afternoons  in  the  week.  The 
atmosphere  of  patronage  and  "  sprinkling 
charity"  that  is  so  common  in  these  meetings, 
distinctly  lowers  the  self-respect  of  the  women ; 
before  very  long  they  learn  to  write  begging 
notes  or  send  begging  messages  to'  "the 
ladies  "  in  charge,  and  the  place  that  should 
be  for  them  a  source  of  spiritual  strength 
becomes  merely  a  source  of  supplies. 


Collateral  Readings  :  "  The  Lustig's  "  and  "  Corinna's 
Fiametta,"  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer  in  "  One  Man 
who  was  Content  and  Other  Stories."  ''  Practical  Sanitary 
and  Economic  Cooking"  (adapted  to  persons  of  moderate 
and  small  means),  Mrs.  Mary  Hinman  Abel,  published  by 
American  Public  Health  Association,  Rochester,  N.Y. 
*'  Foods :  Nutritive  Value  and  Cost,"  by  W.  O.  Atwater 
in  Farmer's  Bulletin  No.  23  of  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture.  "  Dietary  Studies  in  New  York  City,"  W. 
O.  Atwater  and  Charles  D.  Woods  in  Bulletin  No.  46  of 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  Health 
Department  of  New  York  City  will  soon  publish  leaflets 
prepared  by  experts,  which  will  contain  simple  directions 
about  buying  and  preparing  food.  "  The  Le  Play  Method 
of  Social  Observation,"  "American  Journal  of  Sociology," 
Vol.  II,  No.  I.  "Treatment  of  Widows  and  Dependent 
Children,"  Mrs.  L.  Wolcott  in  Proceedings  of  Fifteenth 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  137  sg'.  "Girls  in 
a  Factory  Valley,"  Mrs.  Lillie  B.  Chace  Wyman  in  "Atlan- 
tic," Vol.  LXXVIII,  pp.  391  sg.  and  506  sg. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   CHILDREN 

The  visitor  in  the  homes  of  the  poor  whose 
chief  concern  is  with  questions  of  material 
relief  often  overlooks  the  children  entirely, 
unless  they  are  large  enough  to  be  forced 
into  the  labor  market  and  made  to  contribute 
toward  the  family  income.  In  charity  meet- 
ings, where  visitors  get  together  to  discuss 
the  difficulties  of  individual  families,  it  will 
often  happen  that  the  children  are  not  men- 
tioned. On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  large 
class  of  charity  workers  who  concern  them- 
selves with  the  children  only,  and  a  strongly 
marked  tendency  of  modern  charity  is  to 
treat  the  children  of  the  poor  quite  apart 
from  and  without  any  relation  to  their  home 
life.  "We  constantly  hear  it  said,"  writes 
Mrs.  James  Putnam,  "  that  we  cannot  help 
the  older  ones,  but  that  we  must  save  the 
76 


THE  CHILDREN  77 

children.  It  seems  clear  to  me  that  to  help 
one  without  the  other  is  usually  an  impossi- 
ble task.  Their  interests  are  too  closely  bound 
together."  ^ 

There  is  always  danger,  in  our  eagerness  to 
help  the  children,  that  we  may  only  encourage 
parents  to  shirk  their  duty.  Take  the  admira- 
ble charities  known  as  day  nurseries.  If 
care  is  not  taken  to  exclude  all  except  the 
children  of  widows,  or  of  women  whose  hus- 
bands are  disabled,  these  will  only  encourage 
laziness  in  the  husband,  and  help  to  bring 
about  that  unwholesome  condition  in  which 
the  wife  is  breadwinner,  homemaker,  and  child- 
bearer. 

The  first  thing  that  a  visitor  should  observe 
in  a  family  where  there  is  a  baby  is  whether 
the  child  is  nursed  too  many  months  and  too 
often.  A  child  should  not  be  nursed  during 
the  night  after  it  is  six  months  old.  Solid 
food  is  usually  given  too  soon;  tea  and  coffee 
are  often  given  before  the  child  is  a  year  old, 
and  to  these  is  added  "  anything  on  the  table." 

1  Proceedings  of  Fifteenth  National  Conference  of  Charities, 
1887,  p.  152. 


78        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

For  the  children's  sake,  the  visitor  should  be 
very  observant.  It  is  difficult,  at  first,  to  find 
out  how  they  are  fed,  bathed,  and  clothed, 
and  whether  they  go  to  bed  early,  in  clean 
beds  and  ventilated  rooms ;  but  one  can  learn 
more  by  observation  than  by  direct  questions. 
Ask  to  see  the  baby  bathed,  and  notice  the 
condition  of  its  scalp  and  skin.  If  in  any 
doubt,  it  is  always  best  to  consult  a  doctor; 
do  not  allow  your  ignorance  to  make  you  a 
non-conductor.  Learn  how  to  sterilize  milk, 
and  teach  the  mother;  show  her  the  impor- 
tance of  feeding  at  regular  intervals,  and  im- 
press upon  her  that  small  children  should 
never  have  stimulants,  greasy  food,  green 
fruit,  or  cakes,  nuts,  and  candies. 

In  summer,  the  baby  should  have  frequent 
airings  in  the  nearest  park,  and,  in  case  of 
sickness,  the  visitor  should  know  how  to  use 
the  children's  sanitariums,  floating  hospitals, 
free  excursions  or  other  charities  provided  for 
sick  children.  For  the  older  children  it  will  be 
possible  to  procure  a  country  holiday  through 
the  fresh  air  society  or  the  children's  coun- 
try homes  that  are  provided  within  easy  dis- 


THE  CHILDREN  79 

tance  of  all  our  large  cities.  Or,  better  still, 
the  visitor  may  know  some  one  in  the  country, 
or  may  have  a  summer  home  there,  where  the 
little  ones  can  be  entertained.  Any  one  who 
has  once  realized  how  important  it  is  that 
every  growing  child  should  know  and  love 
the  country,  will  gladly  put  up  with  some 
personal  inconvenience  to  give  this  knowledge 
to  the  little  folk  in  the  family  he  visits. 

As  soon  as  the  children  are  old  enough, 
connection  should  be  made  with  the  nearest 
kindergarten,  or  if,  unfortunately,  there  is  no 
kindergarten  near  enough,  the  visitor  should 
learn  some  of  the  kindergarten  games  and 
occupations,  and  teach  the  children.  When 
the  children  go  to  the  public  schools,  the  vis- 
itor should  make  the  acquaintance  of  their 
teacher. 

"  One  of  our  visitors  went  for  two  years  to 
visit  a  widow  and  her  children  without  feeling 
that  she  accomplished  anything,  though  the  in- 
tercourse was  pleasant  enough  in  itself.  Then 
she  heard  that  the  girl  of  thirteen  was  hav- 
ing trouble  in  school  and  was  in  danger  of 
being  expelled.     She  went  to  see  the  teacher. 


So       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

The  girl  was  always  well  dressed,  and  the 
teacher  had  no  idea  she  was  a  poor  girl. 
After  seeing  the  visitor  the  teacher  touched 
the  girl  at  last  by  talking  with  her  of  the 
sacrifices  her  mother  had  made  for  her  educa- 
tion, and  urging  her  to  do  her  part,  that  her 
mother's  hard  work  might  not  be  in  vain.  In 
this  way  she  persuaded  the  girl  to  good  be- 
havior and  kept  her  in  school  —  all  because 
some  one  had  visited  the  family  for  a  year  or 
two  and  could  speak  confidently  of  their  con- 
dition and  character."  ^ 

No  one  can  work  among  the  poor  in  their 

4  homes  without   realizing  the  need  of  compul- 

j  sory  education   laws.      There   are   still   people 

here  and  there  who  talk  about  the  danger  of 

educating  the  poor  "  above  their  station,"  but 

\  those  who  know  the  poor  in  our  large  cities 

I  from  actual  contact  feel  that  over-education  is 

Hhe  very  least  of  the  dangers  that  beset  them. 

The  lack  of  adequate  school  accommodations, 

making  it  impossible  to   punish  truancy,  is  a 

much  greater  danger,  and,  in  some  States,  the 

absence    of    any    compulsory    education    law 

1  Miss  Z.  D.  Smith. 


THE  CHILDREN  8 1 

makes  the  child  the  easy  victim  of  trade  con- 
ditions and  of  parental  greed.  The  visitor 
should  never  permit  the  desire  to  increase  the 
family  income  to  blind  him  to  the  fact  that 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  welfare  of  the 
child  is  seriously  endangered  by  wage-earning. 
Where  there  is  a  compulsory  education  law, 
he  should  cooperate  with  the  truant  officers 
in  securing  its  enforcement;  where  there  is  no 
such  law,  every  influence  should  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  parents  to  keep  children  in 
school.  The  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society  of 
Detroit  refuses  aid  to  families  in  which  the 
children  are  kept  from  school,  and  all  our  re- 
lief agencies,  churches  included,  would  do  well 
to  adopt  this  rule. 

Some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  devoted 
workers  in  child-saving  agencies  have  sounded 
the  note  of  warning  on  the  subject  of  chil- 
dren wage-earners.  "The  fact,"  says  Mrs. 
Anna  Garlin  Spencer,  "that  the  world  of  in- 
dustry has  found  out  and  established  methods 
of  labor  which  can  utilize  the  work  of  chil- 
dren to  profit,  gives  to  that  world  of  industry, 
as  an  upper  and  a  nether  millstone,  the  greed 

6 


82        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

of  employers  and  the  cupidity  and  poverty  of 
parents,  between  which  the  life  of  the  child 
is  often  ground  to  powder."  ^  And  Mrs. 
Florence  Kelley,  writing  from  her  experience 
as  a  factory  inspector  in  Illinois,  says :  "  I 
do  rfot  mean  that  every  boy  is  usually  ruined 
by  his  work,  but  I  do  mean  that,  the  earlier 
the  child  goes  to  work,  the  greater  the  proba- 
bility of  ruin.  I  mean,  too,  that  there  is  to 
be  gained,  from  a  scientific  study  of  the  work- 
ing child,  an  irradiating  side-light  upon  the 
tramp  question,  the  unemployed  question,  and 
the  whole  ramifying  question  of  the  juvenile 
offender.  .  .  .  One  reason  that  immigrants 
cling  so  closely  to  the  great  cities  is  that 
they  find  there  far  more  opportunity  to  get 
money  for  their  children's  work.  There  is 
probably  no  one  means  of  dispersing  the 
disastrously  growing  colonies  of  our  great 
cities  so  simple  and  effective  as  this  one,  of 
depriving  the  children  of  their  immediate  cash 
value."  2 

1  Proceedings  of  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Chicago, 
1893.     Volume  on  "Care  of  Children,"  p.  7. 

2  Proceedings  of  Twenty-third  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties, 1896,  p.  164. 


THE  CHILDREN  83 

Another  hindrance  to  the  proper  education 
of  the  children  is  the  habit  of  keeping  them 
from  school  to  run  errands,  to  carry  their 
fathers'  dinners,  or  to  help  with  the  housework. 
The  girls  are  often  taken  away  from  school 
very  early  for  trivial  reasons. 

Recent  developments  in  child  study  show 
that  many  of  the  moral  and  mental  obliquities 
of  children  may  be  traced  to  physical  defects. 
In  dealing  with  wayward  and  dull  children,  the 
visitor  should  bear  this  fact  in  mind,  and,  either 
by  observation  or  by  the  help  of  a  physician, 
discover  wherein  the  child  is  defective.  The 
sooner  a  defect  is  discovered,  the  easier  it  will 
be  to  cure  it,  and  for  this  reason  the  visitor 
should  learn  to  apply  simple  tests  for  defective 
sight  and  hearing. 

In  a  very  instructive  article,  which  every  visi- 
tor should  read,  on  "  Child  Study,"  ^  Professor 
Krohn  says  that  "  dull "  children  suffer  from 
defective  hearing  in  ninety-nine  out  of  one 
hundred  cases.  He  tells  of  one  girl  in  a  class 
who  failed  to  answer  correctly,  and  was  said  by 
the  teacher  to  be  the  most  stupid  child  in  the 

1  "  Charities  Review,"  Vol.  VI,  pp.  433  S(^. 


84        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

school.  "  After  the  class  was  dismissed,  I  told 
the  teacher  that  I  did  not  believe  that  the  little 
girl  was  intellectually  stupid;  that  there  was 
probably  some  physical  defect  clogging  the 
pathway  to  her  active  little  brain;  and  I  re- 
quested an  opportunity  to  talk  to  the  child  at 
recess,  when  I  found  that  she  could  not  hear 
my  stop-watch  tick  until  it  was  within  nine 
inches  of  her  right  ear,  and  eleven  inches  of 
her  left  ear.  The  average  child,  under  the 
same  local  conditions,  can  hear  the  same  watch 
tick  at  a  distance  of  twenty-one  feet.  How 
could  the  poor  child  answer  correctly  when  she 
could  not  hear  what  was  asked .?  Every  answer 
was  a  mere  guess.  After  a  time  any  child 
would  become  stupid  under  such  conditions, 
believing  it  of  no  use  to  attempt  to  answer  at 
all.  This  little  girl  was,  at  my  suggestion, 
given  a  seat  not  far  from  the  teacher's  desk 
and  especial  pains  was  afterward  taken  to  speak 
distinctly  to  her.  .  .  .  She  has  since  mani- 
fested such  marked  improvement  that,  at  the 
close  of  the  last  school  year,  she  ranked  second 
in  her  class." 

In  puzzling  cases  of  waywardness,  the  visitor 


THE  CHILDREN  85 

should  seek  the  advice  of  the  agent  of  the  local 
children's  aid  society,  who  is  often  an  expert, 
and  glad  to  help  one  who  is  in  earnest  in  such 
work.  The  Report  of  the  Boston  Children's 
Aid  Society  for  1896,^  cites  two  cases  of 
truancy  due  to  physical  defects.  One  was  a 
girl  of  ten  years,  whose  eyes  were  found  to  be 
defective.  After  fitting  her  with  proper  glasses, 
the  Society's  agent  had  her  returned  to  school. 
Another  was  a  boy  of  eight,  with  a  slight  im- 
pediment in  his  speech.  No  one  had  noticed 
that  his  schoolmates  teased  the  child,  until  he 
told  the  agent.  After  the  boy's  teacher  had 
been  seen,  there  was  no  more  laughing  and  no 
more  truancy. 

Massachusetts  has  an  excellent  system  of 
placing  juvenile  offenders  on  probation  for  a 
first  offence.  This  same  report  contains  illus- 
trations of  the  work  of  the  Children's  Aid 
Society's  probation  officer.  "A  boy,  fifteen 
years  of  age,  already  on  informal  probation, 
and  apparently  doing  fairly  well,  was  suddenly 
brought  into  court,  charged  with  breaking  and 
entering   his   employer's   shop   at   night.      On 

1  pp.  13  sq. 


86        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

account  of  his  past  good  character,  he  was  put 
on  probation  by  the  court  under  our  agent's 
care.  He  told  Mr.  Lawrence  that  he  got  into 
this  criminal  state  of  mind  by  bad  reading  and 
by  attending  low  theatrical  performances.  With 
the  aid  of  the  boy's  Sunday-school  teacher  he 
has  been  encouraged  to  do  his  best,  and  is  now 
working  regularly,  taking  good  books  from  the 
Public  Library,  and  is  doing  very  well." 

The  charitable  are  only  beginning  to  dis- 
cover the  importance  of  such  personal  and  pre- 
ventive work  among  children,  founded  upon  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  their  habits  and  char- 
acter. Such  work  must  be  done  in  large  meas- 
ure by  volunteers,  and  the  friendly  visitor's 
relations  to  poor  families  render  him  specially 
fit  for  the  service.  The  illustration  just  given 
emphasizes  the  importance  of  guiding  a  child's 
reading.  It  is  not  enough  to  teach  the  chil- 
dren to  use  the  Public  Library ;  we  should  know 
what  they  are  reading  and  teach  them  to  enjoy 
the  right  books.  An  admirable  system  of  lend- 
ing libraries  having  this  object  in  view  has  been 
estabHshed  by  the  Boston  Children's  Aid 
Society.     These  little  Home  Libraries  in  small 


f  or  THE  -1. 

I    UNIVERSITY    ) 
THE  CHHUDREN    of        ^     /      87 

hanging  book  cases  are  placed  in  certain  homes 
in  poor  neighborhoods,  and  the  visitor  in 
charge  of  a  library  meets  at  regular  intervals  a 
group  of  children  of  the  neighborhood  who 
form  the  library  circle,  explaining  the  books  to 
them,  playing  games,  and  getting  well  ac- 
quainted. A  friendly  visitor  might  easily 
establish  such  a  library  in  any  poor  neighbor- 
hood ;  the  details  of  the  plan  may  be  had  upon 
application  to  the  Children's  Aid  Society. 

Training  in  citizenship  must  not  be  over- 
looked. Our  boys  and  girls  should  know 
more  about  our  country  than  their  parents 
can  teach  them.  The  publications  of  the 
Patriotic  League,  230  W.  13th  St.,  New  York, 
will  be  found  very  useful.  The  League  issues 
a  Young  Citizens'  Catechism  and  a  monthly 
journal,  "Our  Country."  The  Sunday-school 
is  another  help  to  the  visitor,  and  it  is  well 
to  know  not  only  the  public-school  teacher, 
but  the  Sunday-school  teacher,  whose  cooper- 
ation should  be  sought  in  any  plans  for  the 
children's  welfare.  One  Sunday-school  is  a 
help,  but  two  or  more  Sunday-schools  for  one 
child    are    thoroughly    demoralizing,    and    we 


S8        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

should  do  our  best  to  discourage  any  child 
in  whom  we  are  interested  from  going  to  more 
than  one. 

It  too  often  happens  that  children  are  sent 
by  their  parents  to  several  churches  with  the 
deliberate  purpose  of  making  profitable  chari- 
table connections.  This  habit  of  thrusting 
the  children  forward  to  excite  sympathy,  of 
sending  them  to  ask  help  of  teachers,  clergy- 
men, and  charity  agents,  is  so  obviously  bad 
for  the  children  that  one  wonders  how  the 
charitable  can  ever  have  permitted  it  to  be- 
come so  general.  Children  should  never  be 
permitted  to  deliver  begging  notes  and  mes- 
sages from  a  family  in  which  there  is  an  able- 
bodied  adult. 

Of  all  charitable  practices  that  help  to 
manufacture  misery  and  vice,  the  practice 
of  giving  to  child-beggars  on  the  street 
is  the  most  pernicious.  One  boy  who  has 
become  a  skilful  beggar  teaches  another,  and 
first  the  money  goes  for  candy  and  ciga- 
rettes, then  for  gambling  and  low  theatres. 
The  next  step  is  petty  thieving,  the  next 
burglary,   and    then    follow   commitment   to   a 


THE  CHILDREN  89 

reformatory,  which  often  fails  to  reform,  and, 
later,  a  criminal  career.  I  have  seen  children 
travel  this  road  so  often  that  it  is  difficult  to 
speak  without  bitterness  of  the  unthinking 
alms  that  led  them  into  temptation.  Some- 
times parents  connive  at  child-begging,  but 
often  they  know  nothing  of  it  until  the  chil- 
dren have  grown  incorrigible.  A  strict  enforce- 1 
ment  of  the  laws  against  child-begging  is  very 
difficult  until  every  one  is  convinced  of  the 
cruelty  of  giving  money  to  unknown  children 
on  the  street  or  at  the  door. 

It  sometimes  becomes  the  visitor's  painful 
duty  to  protect  children  from  cruelty,  criminal 
neglect,  or  immorality  by  legal  removal  from 
their  parents'  control.  Here  a  society  for 
the  protection  of  children  will  often  render 
valuable  assistance.  Such  a  society  is  likely 
to  be  hampered  in  its  work  by  the  unwilling- 
ness of  charitable  visitors  to  tell  what  they 
know  in  court.  Sometimes  this  is  due  to 
timidity,  and  sometimes  to  a  fear  of  losing 
influence  in  the  neighborhood.  Clergymen 
have  been  known  to  refuse  their  testimony 
for   this   latter   reason.      The   friendly   visitor, 


90        FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

whose  interest  is  centred  in  only  one  family 
in  the  neighborhood,  need  not  be  so  cautious, 
and  his  continuous  visiting,  extending  over 
many  months,  makes  his  testimony  very  valu- 
able. No  fear  of  losing  influence  with  other 
members  of  the  family  should  prevent  him 
from  speaking  out  where  a  child's  future  is 
at  stake.  Just  a  few  months  more  in  evil 
surroundings  may  mean  moral  death  to  the 
child,  and  neighbors  are  notoriously  unwilling 
to  tell  what  they  know. 

It  is  impossible  to  enter  here  upon  the 
vexed  question  of  the  relative  merits  of  board- 
ing-out dependent  children,  of  placing  them 
without  pay  in  country  homes,  or  of  commit- 
ting them  to  the  care  of  institutions,  though 
I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting,  in  passing,  the 
opinion  of  Miss  Mason,  for  twelve  years  an 
English  government  inspector  of  boarded-out 
children,  that  "well  carried  out,  boarding-out 
may  be  the  best  way  of  caring  for  dependent 
children;  ill  carried  out,  it  may  be  the  worst." 
r  There  is  a  very  foolish  saying  that  the  worst 
j  home  is  better  than  the  best  institution,  but 
no   one  who  knows  how  bad  a  home  can  be 


THE  CHILDREN  9 1 

or  how  good  an  institution  can  be  will  venture 
beyond  the  statement  that,  other  things  being 
equal,  a  home  is  certainly  better  than  an  insti- 
tution. The  friendly  visitor  should  make  him- 
self familiar  with  what  has  been  written  on 
this  subject,  and  should  be  prepared,  in  any 
given  case,  to  make  the  wisest  selection  of  a 
home  that  local  conditions  make  possible, 
always  remembering,  of  course,  that  his  re- 
sponsibility does  not  end  here;  that  he 
should  continue  to  visit  the  child,  if  it  be 
placed  within  visiting  distance. 

The  visitor  should  also  be  familiar  with  the 
local  laws  for  the  protection  of  children. 
These  usually  include  laws  against  child-beg- 
ging; against  selling  liquor  and  tobacco  to 
minors ;  against  the  employment  of  children 
as  pedlers,  public  singers,  dancers,  etc. ; 
against  the  employment  of  children  under  a 
certain  age  for  more  than  a  specified  number 
of  hours  (or  prohibiting  their  employment 
entirely);  and  against  the  abduction  or  har- 
boring of  female  minors  for  immoral  pur- 
poses. 

What,  above  the  mastery  of  all  these  details, 


92       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

should  be  the  visitor*s  clear  aim  ?     To  see  to 
,  it  that  the  children  are  better  off  than  their 
parents  were,  and  are  saved  from  the  pitfalls 
into  which  the  latter  have  fallen ;  that  the  boys 
are  better  equipped   to  become  breadwinners, 
and   the   girls   to   become   homemakers.     The 
training  given  in  our  public  schools  will  often 
'  seem   very  inadequate,  and   some   of   us   look 
forward   to  the  day  when  every  boy  and  girl 
between  the  ages  of  six  and  sixteen  shall  be 
trained  to  use  hand  and  brain,  when  manual 
training  shall  be  part  of  the  daily  instruction 
of  every  school  course.     Until  this  day  comes, 
the   visitor   must   make    use   of    such   aids   as 
evening  classes  in  boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  peo- 
ple's institutes,  and  Christian  associations.     A 
child's  capabilities  should  be  studied  and  every 
encouragement   given   to  his   small   ambitions. 
But  the  best  help,  after  all,  is  in   the  per- 
isonal    influence    that   the    visitor   can    acquire 
.over    the    growing    child.       When    we    think 
What  personal  influence  has  done  in  our  own 
lives,  how  it  has  moulded  our  convictions,  our 
tastes,  our   very  manner   of   speech,  even,  we 
should  not  despair  of  the  children,  if  we  can 


THE  CHILDREN  93 

attach  them  to  us  and  give  them  a  new  and 
better  outlook  upon  life.  The  time  when  we 
can  be  of  the  greatest  help  to  them  is  during 
the  disorganized  period  that  comes  between 
the  school  days  and  the  settling  down  in  life. 
Many  a  young  life  has  gone  to  wreck  for 
lack  of  a  guiding  hand  at  this  time,  for  lack 
of  a  friend  to  make  suggestions  about  em- 
ployment, companions,  amusements,  and  home 
relations.  The  failure  of  philanthropy  to  make 
any  adequate  provision  for  this  critical  period 
accounts,  in  part,  for  the  large  number  of 
married  vagabonds  in  our  great  cities. 


Collateral  Readings :  On  care  of  infants  see  leaflets  of 
local  Boards  of  Health.  "  The  Working  Child,"  Florence 
Kelley  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty-third  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities,  pp.  i6i  sq.  "The  Working  Boy,"  the 
same  in  "American  Journal  of  Sociology,"  Vol.  II,  No.  3. 
"  Child  Labor,"  W.  F.  Willoughby  and  Clare  de  Graffen- 
reid  in  publications  of  American  Economic  Association. 
"Influence  of  Manual  Training  on  Character,"  Felix  Adler 
in  Proceedings  of  Fifteenth  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties, pp.  272  sq.  "  Children  of  the  Road,"  Josiah  Flynt  in 
"Atlantic,"  January,  1896.  "Family  Life  for  Dependent 
and  Wayward  Children,"  Homer  Folks,  volume  on  "  Care 
of  Children  "  in  Proceedings  of  International  Congress  of 
Charities  at  Chicago,  pp.  69  i"^.     Story  of  "The  Child's 


94       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

Mother,"  in  Mrs.  Margaret  Deland's  "Old  Chester  Tales.** 
"  The  Wisdom  of  Fools,"  Mrs.  Margaret  Deland  (see,  for 
difficulties  in  reclaiming  girls,  the  story  entitled  "  The  Law 
and  the  Gospel ") .  Reports  of  Conventions  of  Working 
Girls'  Societies  at  Boston,  1894,  and  Philadelphia,  1897. 
For  pamphlets  on  School  Savings  Banks  apply  to  J.  H. 
Thiry,  Long  Island  City,  N.Y. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HEALTH 

About  one-fourth  of  all  the  poverty  that 
has  come  within  the  scope  of  charitable  in- 
vestigation is  directly  caused  by  sickness.  "  In 
both  American  and  English  experience,"  writes 
Warner,  "the  percentage  attributable  to  this 
cause  sinks  but  once  slightly  below  fifteen 
and  never  quite  reaches  thirty.  The  average 
is  between  twenty  and  twenty-five.  This  is 
one  of  the  most  significant  facts  brought  out 
by  these  tables  [of  the  statistical  causes  of 
poverty].  It  is  not  one  which  the  author 
anticipated  when  the  collection  of  statistics 
began ;  and  yet  it  has  been  confirmed  and 
reconfirmed  in  so  many  ways  that  the  con- 
clusion seems  inevitable  that  the  figures  set 
forth  real  and  important  facts.  Personal 
acquaintance  with  the  destitute  classes  has 
further  convinced  him  that  most  of  the 
95 


96       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

causes  of  poverty  result  from  or  result  in  a 
weakened  physical  and  mental  constitution, 
often  merging  into  actual  disease."  ^ 

This  fact  gives  added  importance  to  all  the 
efforts  of  modern  charity  to  secure  improved 
dwellings,  open  spaces,  cheap  baths,  and  better 
municipal  sanitation  for  the  poor.  But  improve- 
ment in  these  matters  cannot  come  entirely 
from  without ;  "  the  model  tenement  implies 
a  model  tenant."  As  a  London  authority  puts 
it:  "The  condition  of  the  house  may  degrade 
its  occupants.  The  careless  life  and  habits  of 
the  occupants  will  spoil  the  house,  and  make 
it  filthy  and  unhealthy."  The  friendly  visitor 
should  try  to  make  the  family  healthily  dis- 
contented with  unsanitary  surroundings,  and 
so  prepare  them  for  better  quarters.  Remov- 
ing families  from  unfit  tenements  is  not  enough, 
however,  if  these  tenements  are  almost  imme- 
diately reoccupied.  Their  condition  should  be 
reported  to  the  Board  of  Health,  and,  if  con- 
demned, we  should  see  that  no  one  else  is 
permitted  to  move  into  them. 

I    have   often   noticed    that    charity   agents, 

1 "  American  Charities,"  p.  40. 


HEALTH  97 

who  work  habitually  in  poor  neighborhoods, 
get  so  accustomed  to  bad  sanitary  conditions 
that  they  hardly  notice  them.  Volunteer 
workers  are  not  so  likely  to  fall  into  this  er- 
ror, though  it  is  possible  for  volunteers  to  be 
very  unobservant.  They  often  feel  that  things 
are  all  wrong,  without  being  able  to  state  the 
specific  difficulties.  An  observant  visitor  will 
learn  the  condition  of  the  cellar,  walls,  yard, 
plumbing,  and  outhouses;  will  learn  to  take 
the  cubic  contents  of  a  room  in  order  to  find 
out  the  air  space  for  each  sleeper;  will  learn 
the  family  method  of  garbage  disposal;  will 
see  how  the  rooms  are  ventilated;  and  will 
learn  all  these  things  without  asking  many 
questions.  Dampness  is  a  very  common  cause 
of  sickness;  when  the  children  cough  it  is  a 
very  simple  matter  to  ask  about  the  cellar, 
and  even  get  permission  to  see  it. 

The  prejudice  against  fresh  air,  especially 
night  air,  is  a  difficult  one  to  overcome.  One 
mother,  who  kept  her  children  scrupulously 
clean,  could  never  understand  the  value  of 
fresh  air  until  a  visitor  explained  to  her  how 
air  was   polluted  by  the    soiled    air    that  we 


98       FRIENDLY   VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

breathed  out,  just  as  water  was  polluted  when 
we  washed  our  hands  in  it.  When  the  chil- 
dren breathed  this  soiled  air  in  again  it  made 
them  "  dirty  inside " ;  and  this  homely  state- 
ment left  such  an  unpleasant  picture  in  the 
mother's  mind  that  her  rooms  were  always 
well  ventilated  afterward. 

It  is  difficult  to  ventilate  a  small  room  with- 
out making  a  draft,  but,  next  to  the  chimney, 
the  upper  sash  is  the  simplest  ventilator,  and 
should  not  be  immovable,  as  it  is  in  many  small 
houses.  A  board  about  five  inches  wide  under 
the  lower  sash  will  make  a  current  of  air  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  sashes,  and,  better 
still,  two  pieces  of  elbow  pipe  with  dampers, 
fixed  in  the  board,  will  throw  a  good  current 
of  air  upward  into  the  room.  Another  venti- 
lator can  be  made  by  tacking  a  strip  of  loosely 
woven  material  to  the  upper  sash  and  to  the 
top  of  the  window-frame.  When  the  upper 
sash  is  dropped,  the  stuff  is  drawn  taut  over 
the  opening,  and,  while  permitting  air  to  pass 
through,  breaks  the  current. 
''  Equal  in  importance  with  fresh  air  inside 
the    house   is   exercise   out  of    doors.     I   was 


HEALTH  99 

shocked  some  years  ago  to  find  that,  of  six 
Sunday-school  boys  who  went  with  me  on  a 
little  trip  to  *  our  largest  city  park,  five  had 
never  been  there  before.  This  had  not  been 
due  to  lack  of  time  or  money,  though  they 
had  very  little  of  either;  but  its  sole  cause  had 
been  lack  of  enterprise. 

There  is  an  impatient  and  popular  saying 
that  soap  and  water  are  cheap;  like  many 
other  popular  sayings,  it  is  only  half  true. 
Personal  cleanliness  is  rather  expensive  when 
one  takes  into  account  the  time,  energy,  and 
frequent  changes  of  clothing  required  to 
keep  the  body  daintily  clean.  Visitors 
should  realize  this  in  any  effort  to  introduce 
a  higher  standard  of  personal  neatness,  and 
should  not  be  impatient  when  they  do  not 
immediately  succeed.  Cleanliness  and  health 
are  so  nearly  related,  however,  that  the  effort 
is  very  well  worth  making.  A  visitor  who 
hesitated  to  complain  to  a  mother  about  her 
little  girl's  neglected  condition,  borrowed  the 
child  to  spend  the  day,  and  brought  her  home 
at  night  sweet,  clean,  and  rosy,  with  her  hair 
well  brushed  and  curled.     The  hint  was  taken. 


lOO      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

It  would  be  very  unfortunate  for  the  visitor 
to  be  an  alarmist,  for  there  are  imaginary- 
invalids  among  the  poor  as  well  as  elsewhere, 
but  more  frequently  the  poor  neglect  the  earlier 
symptoms  of  sickness  altogether,  or  else  dose 
themselves  with  patent  medicines.  The  quack 
doctors  who  advertise  in  the  daily  papers  draw 
much  of  their  custom  from  the  very  poor,  who 
are  also  large  consumers  of  cure-alls  and  pro- 
prietary medicines.  We  have  seen  how  chil- 
dren's physical  defects  can  pass  unnoticed  at 
home,  and  this  is  the  case  in  a  less  degree 
with  the  defects  and  ailments  of  adults.  The 
very  cheap  grade  of  medical  service  that  is 
sometimes  given  by  regular  practitioners  in 
poor  neighborhoods  has  a  tendency  to  discour- 
age the  poor  from  taking  sickness  in  time. 
The  visitor  can  help  them  to  procure  better 
medical  service  at  reasonable  charges  or,  when 
necessary,  without  charge.  The  grade  of  ser- 
vice in  dispensaries  varies  greatly,  but  the 
medical  advice  and  directions  given  there  with 
the  medicines  can  be  made  far  more  useful  if 
the  visitor  will  go  with  the  patient  and  see 
that  the  directions  are  understood  and  carried 


HEALTH  loi 

out.  Often  no  adult  in  the  family  can  spare 
the  time  to  go  with  a  sick  child  to  the  dis- 
pensary. Here,  too,  the  visitor's  service  will 
be  helpful.  In  cases  of  contagious  disease, 
see  that  the  Board  of  Health  is  notified 
promptly. 

Other  things  being  equal,  an  acute  case  of 
illness  can  usually  be  better  and  more  econom- 
ically cared  for  in  a  hospital  than  in  a  poor 
home.  In  fact,  although  hospitals  were  intended 
originally  for  the  destitute  sick,  the  practice  of 
sending  well-to-do  patients  there  is  rapidly 
spreading.  The  prejudice  against  hospitals, 
still  so  general  among  the  poor,  is  a  survival 
from  a  time  when  hospital  care  was  far  less 
humane  than  now.  If  the  visitor  has  ever 
been  a  patient  in  a  hospital,  and  can  tell  his 
own  experience  or  the  experiences  of  friends, 
or  if  he  happens  to  know  some  of  the  doctors 
or  nurses,  and  promises  to  see  them  about  his 
poor  friend,  the  prejudice  can  often  be  over- 
come. The  dread  of  the  untried  and  the  un- 
known is  natural  enough,  and  yet  it  will  happen 
now  and  then  that  hospital  care  is  so  clearly 
the  best  thing  that  nothing  can  take  the  place 


I02      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

of  it,  and  suffering  and  loss  will  be  entailed 
upon  the  family  by  their  refusal  to  let  the  sick 
member  go.  In  such  cases  charitable  people 
may  be  justified  in  helping  the  family  to  a 
right  decision  by  withholding  all  relief. 

The  prejudice  against  hospitals  is  strong  in 
the  negro  race.  In  the  first  family  I  ever 
visited  the  mother,  a  colored  woman,  had  been 
bedridden  for  thirteen  months.  According  to 
her  own  account  she  had  been  "conjured," 
and  at  first  the  mention  of  a  hospital  made 
her  hysterical.  She  consented  to  let  a  doctor, 
who  was  a  friend  of  mine,  see  her,  and  he  pro- 
nounced her  disease  sciatic  rheumatism.  He 
said  she  could  never  get  well  at  home  with 
four  small,  noisy  children,  and,  besides,  the 
walls  of  her  house  were  damp.  After  two 
months  of  persuading,  I  got  the  mother  into  a 
hospital  and  the  family  moved  into  a  dry  house. 
Among  the  arguments  that  won  her  were  my 
own  acquaintance  with  the  hospital  nurses,  and 
my  promise  to  visit  her  frequently  while  there  ; 
and  my  further  promise  to  see  that  the  children 
were  well  cared  for  while  she  was  away.  But 
the   argument   that  tipped   the   scale   was   the 


HEALTH  103 

promise  to  take  her  away  to  the  hospital  in  a 
carriage  with  two  horses. 

Among  the  cases  in  which  hospital  care  is 
not  practicable  are  those  of  chronic  invalids, 
of  patients  too  sick  to  be  moved,  and  of  patients 
able  to  be  treated  as  "  out-patients "  in  the 
dispensaries.  Confinement  cases,  where  there 
are  children  in  the  family  who  must  be  placed 
temporarily  in  institutions  if  the  mother  leaves 
home,  are  best  treated  in  the  home.  There  are 
societies  that  provide  a  nurse  and  baby-linen 
at  such  times.  Some  families  are  so  degraded 
that  they  look  forward  to  times  of  confinement 
as  times  of  plenty  (see  family  cited  on  p.  55), 
and  in  these  cases  nothing  but  hospital  care 
should  be  offered,  while  we  place  the  children 
temporarily  in  institutions  or  with  neighbors. 
For  the  destitute  sick  outside  of  hospitals,  dis- 
trict nurses  are  now  provided  in  many  cities. 
When  these  nurses  are  careful  to  instruct  well 
members  of  the  household  in  the  care  of  the 
sick,  their  influence  is  especially  helpful,  and 
they  are  often  able  not  only  to  relieve  suffer- 
ing, but  to  raise  the  standard  of  living  in  the 
home.     Diet  kitchens,  supplying  food  specially 


I04      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

prepared  for  the  sick  either  free  or  at  a  nomi- 
nal cost,  are  also  found  in  many  of  our  cities. 

With  all  the  charities  provided  for  the  sick, 
there  is  still  need  of  better  provision  in  this 
country  for  convalescents,  who  are  sent  from  the 
hospitals  too  weak  to  resume  work,  and  still 
needing  rest,  good  food,  and  pure  air  to  effect  a 
complete  cure. 

Two  classes  of  invalids  remain  to  be  men- 
tioned in  this  condensed  summary.  First, 
accident  cases,  in  which  the  visitor  must  be 
careful  to  see  that  legal  redress  is  obtained 
when  the  case  is  one  for  damages,  and  must,  at 
the  same  time,  protect  the  victim  from  lawyers 
who  are  glad  to  take  a  sure  case  for  **  half 
-the  proceeds."  Second,  incurables,  for  whom 
homes  are  provided  requiring  an  entrance  fee, 
or  for  whom,  more  often,  nothing  remains  but 
the  almshouse.  The  visitor  can  sometimes 
secure  the  cooperation  of  friends  and  charities 
interested,  and  so  raise  enough  money  to  pro- 
vide the  fee  for  such  an  invalid,  when,  with- 
out cooperation,  as  much  money  and  more 
would  be  spent  and  the  patient  remain  in  the 
end   unprovided  for.      Charitable  people  often 


HEALTH  105 

get  tired  ;  they  will  do  a  great  deal  for  a  while, 
and  will  then  get  interested  elsewhere,  and 
grudge  the  help  that  is  still  needed.  In  view 
of  this  failing,  it  is  much  better,  in  making 
plans  for  incurables,  to  secure  a  lump  sum  that 
will  make  adequate  provision,  than  to  depend 
upon  the  continued  interest  of  a  number  of 
people. 

The  migration  of  invalids  is  the  last  point 
upon  which  I  shall  attempt  to  touch  under  this 
head.  Any  one  who  has  visited  California, 
Florida,  Colorado,  or  any  other  part  of  our 
country  where  climatic  conditions  are  supposed 
to  be  favorable  for  invalids,  will  realize  the  irre- 
sponsible way  in  which  charitable  people  are 
accustomed  to  send  the  sick  where  they  do  not 
belong.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  the  sudden 
change  of  climate  and  the  impossibility  of 
securing  proper  care,  so  far  from  effecting  a 
cure,  in  many  cases  hasten  death.  "The  sad- 
dest thing  about  the  life  of  a  Denver  minister," 
writes  Rev.  Samuel  A.  Eliot,  "  is  the  number  of 
lonely  funerals  that  he  is  called  upon  to  attend. 
Often  I  have  been  hastily  summoned  to  say  a 
prayer  over  some  poor  body  at  the  undertaker's 


io6      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

shop,  where  there  would  be  present  just  the 
undertaker  and  the  minister,  with  perhaps  the 
keeper  of  the  boarding-house  where  the  lad 
died  or  an  officer  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society.  I  look  at  the  youthful  victim  of  igno- 
rant good-will  borne  to  his  neglected  grave,  I 
imagine  the  mother  and  sisters  in  the  farm- 
house on  the  New  England  hillside,  whose 
tenderness  might  have  soothed  his  last  hours, 
and  I  think  with  bitterness  of  the  well-meant 
but  misdirected  charity  which  condemned  him 
to  a  miserable  exile  and  a  forlorn  death."  ^ 

It  must  be  remembered  that  change  of  cli- 
mate is  helpful  only  in  the  earlier  stages  of  dis- 
ease, and  only  then  when  the  patient  is  able  to 
live  in  comparative  comfort,  free  from  worry 
and  anxiety.  To  send  invalids  to  a  strange 
place  in  the  name  of  charity,  without  providing 
them  with  the  means  of  subsistence,  is  the  re- 
finement of  cruelty. 


Collateral  Readings :  Publications  of  local  Board  of 
Health.  Proceedings  of  International  Congress  of  Chari- 
ties, Chicago,  1893,  volume  on  "Hospitals,  Dispensaries, 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Nineteenth  Conference  of  Charities, 
Denver,  1892,  pp.  91  sq. 


HEALTH  107 

and  Nursing."  "Instructive  District  Nursings"  M.  K. 
Sedgewick  in  "Forum,"  Vol.  XXII,  pp.  297  sq.  "The 
Feeble-minded,"  Dr.  George  H.  Knight  in  Proceedings 
of  Twenty-second  National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp. 
1505^.  See  also  discussion  in  same  volume,  pp.  4605-^. 
"The  Care  of  Epileptics,"  William  P.  Letchworth  in  Pro- 
ceedings of  Twenty-third  National  Conference  of  Charities, 
pp.  199  sq.  "Industrial  Education  of  Epileptics,"  Dr. 
William  P.  Spratling  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty-fourth 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  69  sq.  "  Destitute 
Convalescents :  After  Care  of  the  Insane,"  Dr.  Richard 
Dewey  in  the  same,  pp.  76  sq.  See  also  discussion  on  pp. 
464  sq. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SPENDING   AND    SAVING 

There  is  a  new  school  of  philanthropists 
that  are  inclined  to  make  light  of  thrift,  and 
to  class  both  industry  and  thrift  among  the 
merely  "economic  virtues."  To  this  school 
must  belong  the  settlement  worker  who  spoke 
of  thrift  as  "ordinarily  rather  demoralizing." ^ 
But  another  objection  to  thrift  which  has 
been  made  by  settlement  workers  is  that  it 
was  only  good  for  the  working  classes  "until 
their  employers  discovered  that  there  was  a 
margin   to   their   employees'  wages." 

Is  it  true  that  industry  and  thrift  are  merely 
economic  virtues.^  We  instinctively  feel  that 
they  are  something  more.  One  has  only  to 
think  of  a  lazy  man  to  get  an  impression  of 
something    essestially   contemptible    and    cow- 

1  See  Report  on  the  Questions  drawn  up  by  Present  Resi- 
dents in  our  College  Settlements,  p.  17.  Published  by  the 
Church  Social  Union,  Boston. 

108 


SPENDING  AND  SAVING  I09 

ardly.  On  the  other  hand  the  man  that 
loves  work  and  throws  himself  into  it  with 
energy  is  winning  more  than  material  rewards. 
The  thriftless  and  the  extravagant,  whether 
rich  or  poor,  are  often  mean  and  self-indulgent, 
lacking  the  first  quality  of  the  unselfish  in  lack- 
ing self-control.  In  teaching  industry  and 
thrift,  therefore,  —  though  these  virtues,  like 
others,  have  an  unlovely  side,  —  we  may  feel 
that  we  are  dealing  with  two  of  the  elements 
out  of  which  not  only  character  but  all  the 
social  virtues  are  built. 

Nor  will  the  pessimistic  theory  that  the 
worker  must  spend  as  much  as  possible  on 
indifferent  food  and  housing  in  order  to  keep 
up  the  rate  of  wages,  bear  the  light  of  com- 
mon sense.  It  is  true  that  the  man  who 
merely  hoards  for  the  sake  of  hoarding,  de- 
veloping no  new  and  higher  wants,  no  clearly 
defined  aims,  will  still  be  almost  as  helpless 
as  the  most  thriftless.  But  no  one  is  more 
helpless  against  the  encroachments  of  em- 
ployers than  the  man  who  lives  from  hand 
to  mouth,  whose  necessities  press  ever  hard 
upon  him,  crippling   him   and   crippling   those 


no      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

with  whom  he  competes  in  the  open  market. 
Then  again,  successful  cooperation  is  impos- 
sible to  the  thriftless.  The  lack  of  self-con- 
trol, the  lack  of  power  to  defer  their  pleasures, 
unfits  them  for  combined  effort  and  makes  it 
more  difficult  for  them  to  be  loyal  to  their 
fellow-workmen.  Visitors  can  advocate  thrift, 
therefore,  for  both  economic  and  moral  reasons. 
There  is  a  use  of  the  word  "  thrift "  that 
may  help  us  to  realize  its  best  meaning. 
Gardeners  call  a  plant  of  vigorous  growth  a 
"  thrifty  "  plant.  Let  us  bear  this  in  mind  in 
our  charitable  work,  and  remember  that  any- 
thing that  hinders  vigorous  growth  is  essen- 
tially unthrifty.  Thrift  means  something  more 
than  the  hoarding  of  small  savings.  In  fact, 
saving  at  the  expense  of  health,  or  training, 
or  some  other  necessary  preparation  for  suc- 
cessful living,  is  always  unthrifty.  It  is  un- 
thrifty to  live  in  damp  rooms  to  secure  cheaper 
rent;  it  is  unthrifty  to  put  aside  money  for 
burial  insurance  when  the  children  are  under- 
fed; it  is  unthrifty  either  to  buy  patent  medi- 
cines or  to  neglect  early  symptoms  of  disease 
in   order  to  save  a  doctor's   bill ;   above  all,  it 


SPENDING   AND   SAVING  III 

is  unthrifty  to  take  young  children  away  from 
school  and  force  them  to  become  breadwinners. 
Thrift,  therefore,  includes  spending  as  well 
as  saving. 

Charity  workers  often  complain  that,  in  the 
poor  families  known  to  them,  thrift  is  impossi- 
ble, because  there  is  nothing  to  save.  More 
often  than  not  this  means  that  their  relations 
with  the  poor  have  ceased  as  soon  as  acute  dis- 
tress is  past,  and  that  they  have  stopped  visit- 
ing at  the  very  time  when  improved  material 
conditions  have  made  the  best  friendly  services 
possible. 

Any  attempt  to  divide  the  poor  into  classes 
is  to  be  deprecated,  because  human  beings  are 
not  easily  classified.  But,  speaking  roughly, 
and  using  the  classification  merely  as  a  tempo- 
rary convenience,  charity  workers  will  find  that 
the  thrift  habit  divides  the  poor  into  three 
classes.  First,  those  who  are  very  thrifty,  and 
this  is  a  large  class.  Misfortune  may  overtake 
the  most  provident  during  long  periods  of 
industrial  depression,  or  they  may  become  tem- 
porarily dependent  through  sickness  or  some 
unforeseen  accident.     The  second  class  includes 


112     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

those  who  are  willing  to  work  when  work  is 
plentiful,  but  who  have  little  persistence  or  re- 
sourcefulness in  procuring  work.  In  the  busy- 
season  they  spend  lavishly  on  cheap  pleasures 
and  soon  become  applicants  for  relief  in 
troubled  times.  Debt  has  no  terrors  for  them, 
and,  from  their  point  of  view,  it  is  useless  to 
save  because  they  cannot  save  enough  to  make 
it  seem  worth  while.  In  the  third  class  we  find 
the  lazy  and  vicious,  who  shirk  work,  and,  liv- 
ing by  their  wits,  are  better  off  in  bad  times 
than  in  good.  "  It  is  with  the  second  class  that 
the  charitable  may  work  lasting  harm  or  lasting 
good.  To  let  them  feel  that  no  responsibility 
rests  with  them  during  the  busy  season,  and 
that  all  the  re^onsibility  rests  with  us  to  relieve 
their  needs  when  the  busy  season  is  over, 
rapidly  pushes  them  into  the  third  class.  To 
teach  them,  on  the  other  hand,  the  power  and 
cumulative  value  of  the  saving  habit,  and  so  get 
them  beforehand  with  the  world,  is  to  place 
them  in  the  first  class  and  soon  render  them  in- 
dependent of  our  material  help."  ^ 

1  Leaflet  on  "  Summer  Savings,"  published  by  the  Baltimore 
Charity  Organization  Society. 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  1 13 

A  characteristic  of  the  second  class  is  the 
habit  of  buying  on  credit.  The  book  at  the 
corner  grocery  not  only  tempts  the  purchaser 
into  buying  unnecessary  things,  but  the  prices 
are  higher  than  the  market  rate  for  inferior 
goods.  A  student  in  a  university  laboratory, 
who  is  also  a  friendly  visitor,  had  occasion  to 
use  some  sugar  in  one  of  his  experiments,  and, 
being  hurried,  purchased  it  from  the  nearest 
corner  grocery,  paying  more  than  the  usual 
price.  It  proved  to  be  badly  adulterated,  and 
the  user  has  been  more  careful  since  in  advising 
his  poor  friends  about  purchasing  provisions. 
The  credit  system  is  the  natural  outcome  of  un- 
certain income,  and  for  that  reason  is  hard  to 
avoid,  but  in  a  number  of  instances  it  is  con- 
tinued long  after  the  necessity  that  caused  the 
buyer  to  ask  credit  has  ceased  to  exist. 

Another  and  less  excusable  form  of  the  credit 
system  is  buying  household  goods  on  the  instal- 
ment plan.  The  poor  are  often  teased  into  this 
by  glib  agents.  An  old  woman,  whose  income 
was  not  sufficient  to  keep  her  alive,  contracted 
to  buy  a  clock  on  the  instalment  plan  for  $8.00 
because   she   needed   one  when   she  occasion- 


114       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

ally  had  a  day's  job  of  cleaning.  When  her 
visitor  remonstrated  that  a  dollar  clock  would 
have  done  quite  as  well,  she  replied  trium- 
phantly, "  Yes,  but  this  one  is  only  25  cents  a 
week ! "  When  payments  cannot  be  made, 
and  the  purchaser  is  threatened  with  the  loss 
of  the  goods,  it  is  possible  to  be  too  hasty  in 
rushing  to  the  rescue.  The  Fifteenth  Report  of 
the  Boston  Associated  Charities  records  such 
an  experience.  "  A  family  had  purchased  fur- 
niture upon  the  instalment  plan,  when  the  hus- 
band was  suddenly  deprived  of  his  job.  The 
furniture  was  about  to  be  seized,  when  generous 
sympathizers  came  to  the  rescue,  and  redeemed 
the  articles.  Scarcely  had  the  donors  time  to 
realize  what  a  financial  relief  they  had  been 
able  to  give  to  the  troubled  family  before  the 
same  bit  of  folly  was  repeated,  and  *  parlor 
furniture '  was  added  to  the  inventory  of  goods 
and  chattels  to  be  paid  for  by  the  week."  ^ 
When  instalment  men  threaten  seizure,  it  is 
well  to  find  out  whether  they  are  acting  within 
the  law.  They  have  been  known  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  ignorant  clients.  But  the  system 
1  p.  25. 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  I15 

itself  is  bad  in  that  it  encourages  the  purchase 
of  unnecessary  things,  and  at  a  great  advance 
upon  cash  prices. 

When  the  poor  man  would  borrow,  he  is 
often  exposed  to  the  impositions  of  a  class  of 
unscrupulous  money  lenders,  who  violate  the 
laws  against  usury,  but  hope  to  escape  punish- 
ment or  loss  through  the  ignorance  of  their 
customers.  The  pitiful  part  of  it  is  that  the 
self-respecting  poor  often  fall  into  their  traps. 
A  family  in  pecuniary  straits  for  the  first  time 
is  naturally  attracted  by  the  specious  adver- 
tisements of  the  chattel-mortgage  companies, 
which  offer  to  lend  money  on  goods  that  the 
borrower  keeps  in  his  possession,  and  promise 
that  all  negotiations  shall  be  strictly  confiden- 
tial. This  seems  an  easy  way  out  of  pres- 
ent difficulties  without  loss  of  self-respect  or 
any  painful  publicity.  But  the  terms  of  the 
contract  are  far  from  easy  in  reality.  Through 
a  system  of  bonuses,  extra  fees,  or  monthly 
payments  for  "guaranteeing"  the  loan,  inter- 
est amounting  to  from  100  per  cent  to  200 
per  cent  a  year  is  wrung  from  the  borrow- 
ers.      Bled    dry   at    last,   and    unable   to   pay 


Il6      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

such  extortionate  interest  and  the  principal  too, 
their  goods  are  seized,  and  the  members  of  the 
household  become  objects  of  charity.  Where- 
ever  these  chattel-mortgage  companies  gain 
any  foothold,  many  of  their  victims  are  appli- 
cants for  relief.  The  law  usually  furnishes 
ample  protection,  but  the  companies  flourish 
through  the  poor  man's  ignorance  of  the  law. 
As  soon  as  a  visitor  learns  that  the  goods 
of  a  poor  family  are  mortgaged,  he  should, 
at  once,  whether  the  company  is  pressing  for 
payment  or  not,  learn  the  terms  of  the  con- 
tract, and  get  an  opinion  as  to  its  validity 
from  some  friend  who  is  a  lawyer.  The  usual 
form  of  contract  in  Maryland  is  a  six  months* 
mortgage,  bearing  6  per  cent  interest,  with 
the  legal  charge  for  recording  deducted  from 
the  amount  advanced  to  the  borrower.  But, 
in  addition  to  this,  notes  for  from  ;j2.oo  up- 
ward, according  to  the  size  of  the  loan,  are 
made  payable  monthly  to  some  third  party 
who  is  supposed  to  guarantee  the  loan.  Law- 
yers advise  no  payments  on  these  notes,  and 
that  principal  and  legal  interest  be  offered  at 
the  expiration  of  the  mortgage.     If  this  offer 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  II 7 

is  refused,  the  company  renders  itself  liable 
to  damage  proceedings  in  seizing  the  furniture. 
In  each  case,  however,  it  is  better  to  have  a 
lawyer's  advice,  as  the  contracts  vary,  and 
ignorant  men,  who  thought  they  were  signing 
a  six  months'  mortgage,  have  been  known  to 
sign  a  one  month's  mortgage  instead. 

The  law  against  usury  can  protect  those 
who  know  enough  to  apply  it,  but  the  poor 
man  remains  unprovided  with  any  satisfactory 
means  of  negotiating  a  loan.  The  legal  rate 
of  interest  is  too  low  to  make  loans  on  chattels 
profitable.  The  organization,  by  public-spirited 
business  men,  of  companies  that  will  be  care- 
ful in  taking  risks,  and  will  secure  special  legis- 
lation enabling  them  to  charge  not  more  than 
a  reasonable  rate  of  interest,  is  the  only 
remedy.  Companies  like  these  have  been 
organized  successfully  in  Boston  and  Buffalo 
by  philanthropists  who  were  also  business 
men  and  wise  enough  to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  placing  such  loan  agencies  on 
an  equitable  business  basis.  Several  advan- 
tages are  apparent  from  the  working  of  these 
equitable  loan  companies.     Those  who   cannot 


Ii8      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

properly  negotiate  a  loan  are  discouraged  from 
applying,  because  the  loans  are  made  with 
great  care.  Those  who  get  the  loans  are 
fairly  dealt  with,  and  are  helped  at  the  right 
time  in  a  way  that  saves  them  from  becoming 
applicants  for  charity.  Best  of  all,  the  other 
loan  companies  are  forced  to  reduce  their 
rate  of  interest,  and  offer  fairer  terms. 

The  habit  of  pawning  goods  has  never  be- 
come general  among  our  native  population,  but 
among  the  foreign  poor  of  our  large  cities  it 
is  the  common  practice ;  and  here,  too,  the 
\  philanthropic  pawnshop,  started  at  the  instance 
of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety, has  reduced  the  percentage  charged  by 
other  pawnshops  in  New  York. 

This  new  interest  taken  by  philanthropy  in 
the  poor  man  as  borrower  is  still  in  the  tenta- 
tive and  experimental  stage,  but  there  is  an 
encouraging  analogy  between  its  beginnings 
and  the  early  history  of  the  savings  banks. 
"  It  is  seldom  remembered,"  says  Mrs.  Lowell, 
"that  the  great  scheme  of  savings  banks  was 
originally  conceived  and  put  into  operation  as 
/   a  means  of  helping  the  poor.      The  two   first 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  1 19 

savings  banks  were  started  in  Hamburg  in 
1778,  and  in  Berne  in  1787,  and  both  were 
more  or  less  closely  restricted  to  the  use  of 
domestic  servants,  handicraftsmen  and  the 
like.  The  Hamburg  bank  was  part  of  the 
general  administration  of  the  poor  funds."  ^ 

When  the  poor  man  attempts  to  save,  what 
inducements  have  greatest  weight  with  him  ? 
First  of  all,  he  is  likely  to  save  for  some  definite 
and  immediate  object,  because  he  cannot  spend 
in  any  effective  way  until  he  has  saved.  In 
teaching  shiftless  families  to  put  by  small  sums, 
therefore,  it  is  well  to  keep  some  definite  object 
in  view.  For  instance,  persuade  the  children  to 
save  to  buy  needed  clothing,  or  the  parents  to 
save  to  buy  proper  clothing,  bedding,  etc.,  for 
the  children.  This  strengthens  family  affec- 
tion and  leads  the  way  to  a  bank  account  later, 
by  showing  what  money  can  do.^ 

Next  to  such  immediate  inducements  to  thrift 
comes  the  dread  of  pauper  burial,  which  is  a  far 
more  influential  motive  with  the  poor  than 
the   dread  of  either   dependence  or  privation. 

1  "  Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity,"  p.  109. 

2  See  Fourth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  38. 


I20     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

Respectability  is  measured  in  poor  neighbor- 
hoods by  funerals,  and,  whether  the  neighbor- 
hood standards  of  morality  and  respectability 
are  ours  or  not,  we  cannot  afford,  in  our  charity 
work,  to  ignore  them.  Extravagant  funerals 
are  an  evil,  and  we  should  use  our  influence  to 
discourage  extravagance,  even  where  it  is  rooted 
quite  as  much  in  affection  as  in  vanity ;  but  an 
unsympathetic  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  chari- 
table, an  inability  to  understand  the  neighbor- 
hood point  of  view,  has  helped  to  encourage  an 
extravagant  form  of  saving,  namely,  burial  and 
child  insurance. 

To  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  merits  of  in- 
dustrial insurance,  as  furnished  in  this  country 
to  the  poor,  is  outside  the  scope  of  this  book, 
and  the  matter  is  treated  quite  fully,  moreover, 
in  another  volume  of  this  series  ("The  De- 
velopment of  Thrift,"  by  Mary  Willcox  Brown), 
but  the  most  enthusiastic  advocates  of  indus- 
trial insurance  can  hardly  claim  for  it  that  it 
is  an  inexpensive  form  of  saving.  A  very  large 
percentage  of  industrial  policies  lapse,  and  it 
is  a  common  thing  to  find  that  those  who 
have    kept   up  their  payments  and    have    be- 


SPENDING  AND  SAVING  121 

come  beneficiaries,  spend  everything  on  the 
funeral  of  the  insured.  "  Of  ;^200.oo  insur- 
ance received  by  one  widow,  ;^  180.00  was  given 
to  the  undertaker,  and  the  remaining  ^20.00 
was  expended  for  a  mourning  outfit  for  her- 
self. The  family  were  being  aided  by  the 
Emergency  Society  at  that  time."^  In  New 
York,  the  agents  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  regard  the  following  as  a  typical  in- 
stance :  A  woman's  husband  was  insured  for 
$136.00.  When  he  died,  she  called  the  same 
undertaker  that  had  buried  a  child  for  them. 
His  charges  on  the  former  occasion  had  been 
moderate.  The  woman  told  him  that  she 
wanted  a  very  inexpensive  funeral  with  only 
one  carriage.  This  was  the  only  instruction 
that  she  gave.  The  undertaker  asked  whether 
the  deceased  was  insured,  and  was  told  that  he 
was,  whereupon  he  offered  to  collect  the  insur- 
ance and  to  pay  over  to  the  widow  what  was 
left.  His  bill  amounted  to  1^102.50.  These  in- 
stances do  not  indicate  any  collusion,  of  course, 
between  the  undertakers  and  the  insurance  com- 
panies. 

1  Eighteenth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  27. 


122      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

We  have  seen  in  another  chapter  that  sick- 
ness is  one  of  the  most  persistent  causes  of 
distress,  and  only  in  rare  instances  does  a 
death  occur  that  has  not  been  preceded  by 
weeks  and  often  months  of  sickness.  The 
poor  man  needs  sick  benefits  more  than  burial 
or  life  insurance,  and  the  children  of  the  poor 
stand  in  need  of  many  other  things  besides 
decent  burial.  In  fact,  the  money  spent  in 
child  insurance,  which  can  be  of  no  possible 
benefit  to  the  child,  is  often  needed  to  protect 
the  child's  health  or  provide  for  its  education. 
These  should  be  a  parent's  first  care  from  no 
sordid  motive,  and  yet  it  is  a  legitimate  view 
to  regard  children  as  an  investment.  The 
poor  man  has  a  right  to  expect  support  from 
his  children  when  he  is  no  longer  able  to 
work,  and  to  neglect  their  best  interests  is  to 
cripple  his  own  future. 

The  beneficial  societies  and  fraternal  orders 
furnish  a  means  of  saving  for  sick  benefits, 
but  they  are  of  such  varying  degrees  of  merit 
and  trustworthiness  that  it  is  impossible  to 
recommend  them  without  qualification.  They 
have   not   gained   the   same   position   that  the 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  1 23 

friendly  societies  hold  in  England,  partly,  per- 
haps, because  they  are  not  subject  in  Amer- 
ica to  the  same  legal  restrictions  and  official 
inspection. 

Though  the  savings  banks  are  open  to  the 
objection  that  money  is  too  easily  withdrawn 
from  them,  and  is  not,  therefore,  always  avail- 
able at  the  time  of  greatest  need,  yet,  after 
making  every  allowance  for  this,  the  savings 
banks  remain  one  of  the  safest  and  best  means 
of  putting  by  small  savings.  Another  way  of 
saving,  which  is  not  open  to  the  objection  of 
too  easy  withdrawals,  is  the  purchase  of  shares 
in  a  good  building  and  loan  association. 

Some  banks  provide  facilities  for  small  sav- 
ings by  selling  special  stamps  of  small  denomi- 
nations, and,  in  several  cities,  charities  have 
estabUshed  stamp  saving  societies  to  promote 
the  saving  habit,  especially  among  children. 
When  ;^5.oo  has  been  saved  in  this  way, 
a  bank  account  should  be  opened.  One  vis- 
itor has  found  that,  in  getting  children  to  save, 
it  helps  to  have  a  stamp-saving  card  of  one's 
own,  and  show  it.  As  a  means  of  teaching 
children  to  save,  visitors  should  encourage  the 


124      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

introduction  of  stamp  savings  into  our  public 
schools. 

Another  way  to  promote  small  savings  is  to 
send  volunteer  collectors  among  the  poor,  who 
will  visit  certain  families  weekly,  and  collect 
the  five  and  ten  cent  pieces  until  enough  has 
been  saved  to  open  a  bank  account.  This 
work  may  be  combined  with  friendly  visiting, 
though  the  collector  must  visit  at  regular  in- 
tervals, and  in  many  cases  it  is  better  for  the 
friendly  visitor  to  visit  at  irregular  intervals. 
One  visitor  always  leaves  a  small  bank  with 
her  family  when  she  goes  away  in  summer, 
and  the  unlocking  of  this  on  her  return  has 
become  a  family  ceremony. 

Saving  for  fuel  becomes  an  admirable  ob- 
ject lesson,  when  it  is  used  to  establish  the 
saving  habit  and  not  allowed  to  stop  with  the 
mere  purchase.  During  the  summer,  families 
can  be  encouraged  to  put  by  small  sums 
weekly,  and,  instead  of  buying  coal  in  small 
quantities  at  very  high  prices  during  the  win- 
ter, can  save  more  than  half  the  cost  by  buy- 
ing a  ton  or  more  early  in  the  season. 

In  teaching  thrift  in  a  careless  and  shiftless 


SPENDING  AND   SAVING  125 

home,  we  can  get  many  valuable  suggestions 
from  more  thrifty  families  in  the  same  neigh- 
borhood, or  with  the  same  income.  To  effec- 
tively advise  about  expenditure,  one  must  know 
the  family  budget  of  receipts  and  expendi- 
tures, and  often  this  is  more  than  the  family 
knows.  Learning  to  take  note  of  the  items  is 
the  first  lesson  in  thrift.  The  most  important 
thing,  however,  is  our  own  attitude  of  mind. 
"We  must  not  get  into  the  habit  of  saying, 
*Poor  things;  they  can  do  nothing.'  We 
should  rid  ourselves  of  the  habit  of  treating 
them,  not  as  men  and  women,  people  who  can 
look  after  themselves  with  strength  in  their 
muscles  and  brain-power  in  their  heads,  but  as 
animals  whom  we  allow  to  live  in  society  along 
with  ourselves,  taking  for  granted  that  they 
are  deprived  of,  or  cannot  exert,  those  faculties 
which  go  to  make  up  the  strength  and  fibre 
of  men  and  women.  I  assure  you,  those  who 
are  inclined  to  take  a  sentimental  turn  have 
great  temptations  put  before  them  to  treat  the 
poor  as  if  they  were  dependent  animals."  ^ 

1  C.  S.  Loch  in  Fifteenth  Report  of  Baltimore  Charity  Organ- 
ization Society. 


126     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

Collateral  Readings:  "The  Development  of  Thrift," 
Miss  Mary  Willcox  Brown.  "The  Standard  of  Life," 
Mrs.  Bernard  Bosanquet,  especially  the  essay  on  "The 
Burden  of  Small  Debts."  Annual  Reports  of  the  Work- 
ingmen's  Loan  Association,  Boston ;  the  Provident  Loan 
Association,  New  York ;  and  the  Provident  Loan  Com-, 
pany,  Buffalo.  For  stamp  savings,  see  reports  of  New 
York  Charity  Organization  Society  (Committee  on  Penny 
Provident  Fund). 


CHAPTER  VIII 

RECREATION 

I  HAVE  said  that  the  power  to  defer  our 
pleasures  is  a  mark  of  civilization.  There  is 
another  mark  which,  in  this  busy  America  of 
ours,  is  often  denied  to  the  well-to-do  as  much 
as  to  the  poor,  and  that  is  the  power  to  en- 
joy our  pleasures  after  we  have  earned  them. 
Charity  workers  still  underestimate  the  value 
of  the  power  to  enjoy.  They  are  likely  to 
regard  mere  contentment  as  a  model  virtue 
in  the  poor,  whereas  that  discontent  which  has 
its  root  in  more  varied  and  higher  wants  is  a 
splendid  spur  to  progress.  Professor  F.  G. 
Peabody  quotes  Lasalle  in  naming  as  one  of 
the  greatest  obstructions  to  progress  among 
the  poor,  "  The  cursed  habit  of  not  wanting 
anything."  The  power  of  enjoyment  seems 
dead  in  many  a  down-trodden,  sordid  life, 
while   in   many   others   it   wastes    itself    upon 

unworthy  and  degrading  pleasures. 
127 


128      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

There  is  a  passage  in  one  of  Miss  Octavia 
Hill's  essays  that  throws  a  flood  of  light  on 
this  question.  She  says  that  the  love  of  ad- 
venture, the  restlessness  so  characteristic  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  makes  him,  under  certain 
conditions,  the  greatest  of  explorers  and  colo- 
nizers, and  that  this  same  energy,  under 
other  conditions,  helps  to  brutalize  him.  Dis- 
satisfied with  the  dull  round  of  duties  that 
poverty  enforces  upon  him,  he  seeks  artificial 
excitement  in  the  saloon  and  the  gambling 
den.  It  is  useless  to  preach  contentment  to 
such  a  man.  We  must  substitute  healthier 
excitements,  other  and  better  wants,  or  so- 
ciety will  fail  to  reform  him.  In  all  the 
forms  of  play,  all  the  amusements  of  the 
people,  though  some  of  them  may  seem  to 
us  coarse  and  degrading,  there  is  this  same 
restless  seeking  to  express  what  is  highest 
and  best  in  man ;  not  only  to  express  his 
love  of  adventure,  but  his  love  of  social  inter- 
course and  his  love  of  beauty.  When  we 
once  realize  that  certain  vices  are  merely  a 
perversion  of  good  instincts,  we  have  taken 
the  first  step  toward  finding  their  cure. 


( 


RECREATION  129 

It  has  been  said  that  a  man's  pleasures 
give  us  his  true  measure,  and  that  to  change 
the  measure  is  to  change  the  man.  From  this 
point  of  view,  the  subject  of  recreation  is  very- 
near  the  heart  of  the  friendly  visitor's  relation 
with  the  poor.  We  may  have  made  a  conscien- 
tious study  of  the  family  expenses  and  income, 
of  the  sanitary  surroundings,  of  the  work 
record  and  diet,  but  we  shall  not  know  the 
family  until  we  know  what  gives  them  pleas- 
ure. One  visitor  says  that  she  never  feels 
acquainted  with  a  poor  family  until  she  has 
had  a  good  laugh  with  them.  A  defective 
sense  of  humor  in  the  visitor  is  a  great  hin- 
drance to  successful  work:  poor  people  are 
no  fonder  of  dismal  folk  than  the  rest  of  us. 
When  we  come  to  recreations,  friendly  visit- 
ing not  only  makes  large  demands  upon  what 
we  know,  but  upon  what  we  are.  Our  pleas- 
ures measure  us  quite  as  much  as  they  measure 
our  poor  friends,  and,  unless  we  have  kept 
fresh  our  own  power  of  enjoyment,  we  cannot 
hope  to  impart  this  power  to  the  poor,  or  to 
give  them  new  and  better  wants. 

Granting  that  we  have  them  ourselves,  what 


130    FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 


are  some  of  the  healthy  wants  that  we  should 
try  to  pass  on  to  the  poor?  Taking  the 
simplest  first,  we  should  try  to  introduce  simple 
games  and  a  love  of  pure  fun  into  the  family 
circle.  I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Beale  of  the 
Boston  Children's  Aid  Society  for  the  following 
list  of  simple  games,  so  arranged  as  to  include 
standing  and  sitting  games  for  each  evening : 

First  Evening.  Second  Evening. 

I.   Hiding  the  thimble.  i.   Stagecoach. 


2.  Bean  bag. 

3.  Dominoes. 


2.  Buzz. 

3.  Elements. 


Third  Evening. 

1.  Hot  butter  blue  beans. 

2.  Jack  straws. 

3.  Fruit  basket. 


Fourth  Evening. 

1 .  How,  when,  and  where. 

2.  Counting  buzz. 

3.  Magical  spelling. 


Fifth  Evening. 

1 .  Go-bang. 

2.  Spot  on  the  carpet. 

3.  Throwing  lights. 


Sixth  Evening. 

1.  Tea-kettle. 

2.  Musical  chairs. 

3.  Logomachy. 


Seventh  Evening. 

1.  Telling  a  story. 

2.  Blowing  the  feather. 

3.  Authors. 


Eighth  Evening. 

1 .  Pigs  in  clover. 

2.  I  have  a  rooster  to  sell. 

3.  Courtesying. 


In  teaching  such  games  it  is  best  to  begin 
with   the  children,  but   the  parents   can  some- 


RECREATION  131 

times  be  induced  to  join  in.  Story-telling  is 
also  an  unfailing  resource  in  our  efforts  to 
amuse  the  children. 

But,  during  a  good  part  of  the  year,  there 
are  many  outdoor  games  in  which  the  chil- 
dren can  be  interested,  and,  now  that  the 
trolley  cars  have  brought  the  country  so  much 
nearer,  country  trips  for  the  whole  family 
should  be  planned  at  frequent  intervals. 
There  are  few  things  more  pathetic  than  the 
dread  with  which  many  of  our  city  poor  think 
of  the  country,  and  to  teach  them  country 
pleasures  is  to  restore  to  them  a  birthright  of 
which  they .  have  been  robbed.  A  love  of 
plants  and  window-gardening  is  another  health- 
ful pleasure.  Mignonette,  geranium,  wander- 
ing Jew,  and  saxifrage  grow  well  in  small 
spaces.  To  one  family,  living  in  tenement 
rooms  where  there  was  no  sun,  a  visitor  gave 
a  pot  of  geranium.  Later,  the  woman  said : 
"We  have  taken  it  out  on  the  roof  every 
day  when  it  was  pleasant  to  let  the  sun  shine 
on  it.  When  I  couldn't  take  it,  Mary  did; 
and,  for  fear  it  should  get  stolen,  we  stay 
and  sit  by  it.     I   take  the  baby  with  me   too. 


132      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

and  the  baby  likes  the  sun  as  well  as  the 
flower   does." 

With  all  the  added  interest  in  outdoor 
exercise,  and  the  freer,  healthier  life  of  our 
time,  we  are  slow  to  pass  such  advantages  on 
to  the  poor.  The  women  of  the  family  need 
much  urging,  sometimes,  to  get  them  to  take 
any  outdoor  exercise.  Bicycles  are  becoming 
cheaper,  and  a  bicycle  would  be  a  good  invest- 
ment in  any  family  where  all  the  adults  are 
working  at  indoor  occupations.  If  the  visitor 
find  a  gymnasium  not  too  far  away,  the  boys 
and  their  father  should  be  induced  to  go  to  it. 
With  these  added  interests,  a  holiday  will  no 
longer  be  a  thing  to  be  dreaded  by  the  wife 
and  mother,  for  there  will  be  interesting  things 
to  do,  instead  of  mere  loafing  on  the  corner 
or  at  the  saloon.  One  visitor  helped  to  cure 
a  man  of  drinking  by  getting  him  an  accordion 
—  a  fact  that  has  a  touch  of  pathos,  as  indi- 
cating the  poverty  of  interests  in  the  poor 
fellow's  life. 

The  pleasures  of  books,  music,  and  pictures 
ought  to  touch  every  life  at  some  point.  Some 
aesthetic    pleasures,   it   is   true,    are   won    only 


RECREATION  133 

after  long  study  and  preparation,  but  the  best 
art  is  universal  in  its  appeal.  So  far  as  books 
are  concerned,  our  free  libraries  have  made  us 
familiar  with  this  view.  The  visitor  should 
know  the  rules  of  the  nearest  library,  and 
should  be  ready  to  go  there  with  some  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  in  case  it  is  unknown  to 
them.  The  saloon-keepers  in  Ward  10,  Bos- 
ton, complain  that  the  new  branch  of  the 
Public  Library  opened  there  has  interfered  with 
their  business.  Beside  encouraging  the  use 
of  a  lending  library,  the  visitor  should  be 
ready  to  lend  books,  newspapers,  and  maga- 
zines, and  should  be  glad  to  borrow  a  book 
from  the  family,  when  this  will  help  to 
strengthen  friendly  relations. 

The  refining  influence  of  good  pictures  is 
just  beginning  to  be  recognized  by  the  charita- 
ble. Friendly  visitors  cannot  always  organize 
large  loan  exhibitions,  such  as  are  given  in 
the  poorer  neighborhoods  of  London,  New 
York,  and  Boston,  but  they  can  lend  a 
good  photograph  or  engraving,  when  they  are 
going  away,  and  can  replace  it,  from  time  to 
time,   by  another    picture.      Such    loans   have 


134      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

been  known,  like  the  Eastlake  screen  in  Stock- 
ton's story,  to  revolutionize  the  arrangement 
of  the  household.  Then,  too,  a  picture  often 
conveys  a  lesson  more  effectively  than  a  ser- 
mon can.  Mrs.  Barnett  tells,  in  "Practicable 
Socialism,"  ^  of  a  loan  exhibition  in  Whitechapel, 
where  Oxford  students  acted  as  guides  and 
explained  the  pictures.  "  Mr.  Schmalz's  pict- 
ure of  *  Forever  *  had  one  evening  been 
beautifully  explained,  the  room  being  crowded 
by  some  of  the  humblest  people,  who  re- 
ceived the  explanation  with  interest,  but  in 
silence.  The  picture  represented  a  dying  girl 
to  whom  her  lover  had  been  playing  his  lute, 
until,  dropping  it,  he  seemed  to  be  telling 
her  with  impassioned  words  that  his  love  is 
stronger  than  death,  and  that,  in  spite  of  the 
grave  and  separation,  he  will  love  htr  forever, 
I  was  standing  outside  the  exhibition  in  the 
half-darkness,  when  two  girls,  hatless,  with  one 
shawl  between  them  thrown  round  both  their 
shoulders,  came  out.  They  might  not  be  liv- 
ing the  worst  life,  but,  if  not,  they  were  low 
down  enough  to  be  familiar  with  it,  and  to  see 

Ipp.  lig  sq. 


RECREATION  1 35 

in  it  only  the  relation  between  men  and  women. 
The  idea  of  love  lasting  beyond  this  life,  mak- 
ing eternity  real,  a  spiritual  bond  between  man 
and  woman,  had  not  occurred  to  them  until 
the  picture  with  the  simple  story  was  shown 
them.  *  Real  beautiful,  ain't  it  all  ? '  said  one. 
*  Ay,  fine,  but  that  "  Forever "  I  did  take  on 
with  that,'  was  the  answer." 

I  have  lived  nearly  all  my  life  in  a  commu- 
nity where,  during  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
there  has  been  a  great  change  in  musical 
taste.  George  Peabody  left  money  to  found  a 
Conservatory  of  Music,  and  a  few  music  lovers 
spent  time  and  money  to  keep  alive  an  Oratorio 
Society.  Later,  the  visits  of  Thomas'  Orchestra 
and  of  the  Boston  Symphony  Orchestra  added 
to  the  strength  of  these  local  musical  centres; 
but  for  many  years  the  Peabody  Conserva- 
tory was  ridiculed  and  misunderstood,  and  the 
Oratorio  Society  was  usually  in  financial  straits. 
I  mention  these  facts,  because  persons  who 
are  dependent  upon  the  Conservatory  and  the 
visiting  orchestras  for  all  the  good  music  they 
know  have  said  to  me  that  it  must  be  impos- 
sible for  poor  people  ever  to  appreciate  good 


136     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

music.  But  for  the  benefactions  of  George 
Peabody,  and  of  Mr.  Higginson  (who  made 
the  Boston  Orchestra  possible),  and  of  a  few 
others,  they  themselves  could  never  have 
known  the  pleasure  of  enjoying  great  and 
noble  music,  and,  to  this  extent,  at  least,  they 
are  as  dependent  as  the  poorest;  but  they  are 
quite  sure  that  the  great  composers  have  no 
message  for  the  poor.  There  is  difficult  music, 
of  course,  which  only  the  scholarly  musician  can 
appreciate;  but  much  of  the  very  best  music, 
if  we  once  have  a  chance  to  become  familiar 
with  it,  appeals  to  all  of  us.  Then  the  artistic 
temperament  is  not  a  matter  of  either  condi- 
tion or  race,  as  one  of  our  young  American 
musicians  has  pointed  out.  Lecturing  with 
musical  illustrations  to  audiences  on  the  East 
Side  in  New  York,  and  to  audiences  of  negroes 
in  Philadelphia,  he  is  convinced  that  "if  good 
music  were  accessible  to  the  masses,  it  would 
be  appreciated,  and  go  far  to  elevate  them." 

**My  boy,"  wailed  a  poor  mother,  "was  that 
fond  of  music  it  took  him  straight  to  the  bad!" 
And  no  wonder,  for  music  —  apart  from  the 
tawdriest   of   gospel   hymn    tunes — meant   for 


RECREATION  137 

him  the  saloon  and  the  low  concert  hall.  We 
need,  to  counteract  such  influences,  plenty  of  A 
cheap  concerts  of  good  music ;  concerts  follow- 
ing the  plan  of  Theodore  Thomas  with  his 
well-to-do  audiences,  who  were  given  first  the 
best  that  they  liked,  and  then  were  taught 
gradually  to  like  better  and  better  selections. 
All  the  higher  recreations  encroach  upon  the 
field  of  education,  and  I  am  tempted  to  men- 
tion, in  passing,  some  of  the  most  promising 
educational  efforts  for  encouraging  study  among 
the  people.  The  American  Society  for  the 
Extension  of  University  Teaching,  which  has 
its  headquarters  at  Philadelphia,  has  conducted 
very  successful  courses  of  lectures  in  poor 
neighborhoods.  The  enormous  attendance 
upon  the  free  evening  lectures  given  by  the 
Department  of  Education  in  New  York  school 
buildings  is  also  significant.  The  popularity 
of  the  educational  classes  in  working  girls* 
clubs.  Christian  associations,  and  people's  insti- 
tutes is  another  good  sign.  But  I  mention 
these  here  merely  to  emphasize  their  impor- 
tance as  tools  for  the  visitor.  In  families 
where  an  ambition  has  been  aroused,  the  visitor 


138       FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

should  foster  it  by  making  connection  with 
some   such   educational   agencies. 

There  is  a  very  obvious  form  of  snobbery 
that  we  are  quick  enough  to  detect,  the  snob- 
bery that  looks  down  on  people  who  have  to 
work  hard  and  wear  shabby  clothes.  But  an 
even  more  dangerous  form  of  snobbery,  because 
not  so  obvious,  is  the  intellectual  form,  which 
claims  an  exclusive  right  to  culture,  and  looks 
down  upon  the  simple  and  unsophisticated. 
The  fact  is,  that,  save  for  a  very  gifted  few, 
we  are  all  of  us  dependent  upon  the  gifts  of 
others  for  what  we  know  and  what  we  enjoy. 
Probably  there  never  was  a  neighborhood  so 
exclusive  but  many  were  there  upon  whom  edu- 
cation, refinements,  and  beautiful  things  were 
quite  wasted ;  and  there  never  was  a  neighbor- 
hood so  poor  but  some  were  there  who  longed 
for  beauty,  education,  and  a  larger  and  fuller 
life. 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  next  chapter  that, 
when  we  attempt  to  supply  the  poor  with  the 
necessities  of  life,  our  path  is  beset  with  diffi- 
culties. But  when  we  give  them  those  things 
which,  though  not  necessary  to  life,  yet  refine 


RECREATION  1 39 

and  elevate  it,  we  can  do  them  only  unmixed 
good.  Gifts  of  books,  flowers,  growing  plants, 
pictures,  and  simple  decorations,  or,  as  in  one 
instance  known  to  me,  the  present  of  several 
rolls  of  light-colored  wall-paper  to  brighten  a 
dark  room  —  these  help  to  express  our  friend- 
liness, and  have  an  added  value  as  coming 
from  a  friend.  Above  all,  however,  we  should 
not  hesitate  to  share  with  the  poor  our  de- 
light in  healthful  and  refining  pleasures,  and 
should  find  it  natural  to  talk  freely  with 
them  about  our  own  interests. 


Collateral  Readings  :  "  Parlor  Games  for  the  Wise  and 
Otherwise,"  H.  E.  H.  "Faggots  for  the  Fireside,"  Mrs. 
L.  P.  Hale.  "American  Girls'  Own  Book  of  Work  and 
Play,"  Mrs.  Helen  Campbell.  "  Gymnastic  Games,"  pub- 
lished by  Boston  Normal  School  of  Gymnastics.  "  Methods 
of  Social  Reform,"  W.  S.  Jevons.  "  Picture  Exhibitions 
in  Lower  New  York,"  A.  C.  Bernheimer  in  "  Forum,"  Vol. 
XIX,  pp.  610  sg. 


CHAPTER   IX 

RELIEF 

I  HAVE  been  very  unfortunate  if,  in  the 
foregoing  chapters,  I  have  failed  to  make  it 
clear  that  there  are  many  ways  of  assisting 
the  poor  in  their  homes  besides  the  one  way 
usually  implied  by  the  word  **  assistance."  To 
one  who  knows  the  real  needs  of  the  poor, 
the  relief  of  suffering  by  gifts  of  food  and 
fuel  seems  only  a  small  part  of  the  work  of 
charity ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  majority 
of  mankind  are  still  little  moved  by  any 
needs  that  are  not  closely  associated  with 
hunger  and  cold.  Their  imaginations  are  slug- 
gish, and  the  whole  problem  of  poverty  ap- 
pears to  them  simpler  than  it  really  is.  It 
seems  to  them  no  more  than  a  sum  in  arith- 
metic, — "  one  beggar,  one  loaf ;  ten  thousand 
beggars,  ten  thousand  loaves  " ;  and  the  char- 
itable loaf  is  supposed  to  have  moral  and 
140 


RELIEF  141 

healing  qualities  that  are  denied  to  other 
loaves.  The  truth  is  that  charitable  cash  and 
commodities  have  no  moral  qualities  in  them- 
selves;  not  even  the  good  intentions  of  the 
giver  can  endow  them  with  peculiar  virtues. 
Like  all  other  commodities,  however,  they  may 
become  agents  of  either  good  or  evil.  The 
way  in  which  we  handle  commodities  tests  us 
at  every  turn ;  tests  our  sincerity,  our  honor, 
our  sense  of  spiritual  things.  Material  relief 
tests  us  too.  If  we  give  it  believing  that,  in 
itself,  it  can  carry  any  blessing  to  the  poor,  we 
are  taking  a  grossly  material  view  of  human 
life.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  our  knowledge  of 
the  mischief  done  by  reckless  giving  makes 
us  morbidly  sceptical  of  all  material  assist- 
ance, we  are  losing  a  valuable  tool;  for  relief 
at  the  right  time,  and  given  in  the  right  way, 
may  be  made  an  incentive  to  renewed  exertion, 
and  a  help  to  a  higher  standard  of  living. 

When  the  visitor's  ingenuity  in  developing 
resources  within  the  family  renders  material 
relief  from  outside  unnecessary,  the  family  is 
fortunate;  but  often  relief  from  outside  is  a 
necessity,  and   the   question   then  arises,  How 


142      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

shall  it  be  given  ?     Everything  depends  upon 
the  *'how." 

First  of  all  —  and  this  is  a  lesson  that 
visitors  are  slow  to  learn  —  it  is  very  unwise, 
especially  in  the  first  months  of  acquaintance, 
for  friendly  visitors  to  give  money  or  com- 
modities to  the  families  they  visit,  though 
they  may  find  it  necessary  to  see  that  relief 
is  sent  from  some  other  source.  "If  one  of 
our  visitors  finds  her  family  in  dire  distress, 
and  there  is  no  time  to  go  to  the  office  and 
have  aid  secured  in  some  other  way,  she  of 
course,  like  any  one  else,  furnishes  it  at  once 
from  her  own  pocket.  But  except  in  these 
rare  emergencies,  our  visitors  do  not  them- 
selves give  relief  to  those  they  visit.  We 
believe  this  is  a  wise  rule,  and  after  eight 
years'  experience  we  would  not  change  it.  If 
a  stranger  offered  you  a  gift,  you  would  feel 
insulted  and  refuse  it.  Suppose  you  were 
constrained  by  necessity  to  accept  it  —  would 
it  not  make  a  certain  bar  between  you  and 
that  stranger  very  difficult  to  break  down.? 
Imagine  yourself  of  a  different  temper,  that 
you   wanted   all   you   could   get.      Would  you 


RELIEF  143 

not  be  likely  to  talk  more  freely  or  truthfully 
to  one  who  you  knew  would  give  you  nothing 
than  to  one  from  whom  you  hoped  a  plausi- 
ble tale  would  draw  a  dollar?  For  the  visi- 
tor's sake  also  the  rule  is  a  good  one.  We 
are  apt  to  think  our  duty  done  if  we  have 
given  money,  and  if  we  cannot  do  that,  we 
are  forced  to  use  our  ingenuity  to  find  other 
and  better  ways  of  helping."^ 

It  is  eleven  years  since  the  foregoing  pas- 
sage was  written,  but  the  experience  of  almost 
every  practical  worker  in  charity  will  confirm 
it.  Friendly  visitors  are  human,  and  their 
task,  as  it  has  been  described  in  this  book, 
is  not  an  easy  one.  It  is  so  much  easier 
to  give.  But  the  history  of  many  volunteers 
in  charity  is  that,  starting  out  with  excellent 
intentions,  they  were  tempted  to  give  relief 
to  the  families  they  visited.  First  it  was 
clothing  for  the  children,  then  the  rent,  then 
groceries,  then  more  clothing,  and  the  family's 
needs,  strange  to  say,  seemed  to  increase, 
until,  finding  their  suggestions  unheeded,  and 

1  Miss  Z.  D.  Smith  in  Report  of  Union  Relief  Association 
of  Springfield,  Mass.,  1S87,  p.  I2. 


144     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

the  people  no  better  off,  the  volunteers  de- 
serted their  post,  and,  still  worse,  carried 
away  a  false,  distorted  idea  of  what  poor 
people  are  like.  The  poor,  too,  learn  to 
distrust  a  charitable  interest  that  is  not  con- 
tinuous. A  little  self-restraint,  a  little  more 
determination  to  keep  their  purpose  clearly  in 
mind,  would  save  the  charitable  and  the  poor 
from  an  experience  that  is  hardening  to  both. 

When  the  friendly  visitor  has  known  a 
family  for  years,  and  the  friendship  is  thor- 
oughly established,  it  is  conceivable  that  he 
may  be  the  best  possible  source  of  relief; 
but  the  attitude  that  we  must  guard  against 
—  creeping,  as  it  does,  into  all  our  relations 
with  the  poor  as  an  inheritance,  an  outworn 
tradition  —  is  the  attitude  of  the  London 
church  visitor,  who  said  that  she  could  not 
possibly  administer  spiritual  consolation  with- 
out a  grocery  ticket  in  her  bag.  It  is  good 
for  the  poor  and  good  for  us  to  learn  that 
other  and  more  natural  relations  are  possible 
than  the  relations  of  giver  and  receiver,  of 
patron   and   patronized. 

Nothing  that  has  been  said,  however,  against 


RELIEF  145 

permitting  the  visitor  to  become  the  source 
of  supplies  should  be  interpreted  as  meaning 
that  the  visitor  is  not  to  concern  himself 
with  the  way  in  which  relief  enters  the 
home,  and  its  effect  upon  the  welfare  of  the 
family.  Everything  that  concerns  the  wel- 
fare of  its  members  concerns  him,  and  that 
their  energies  should  be  paralyzed  by  a  too 
plentiful  supply  of  relief,  or  that  the  lack  of 
it  should  cause  unnecessary  suffering,  is  a 
matter  that  concerns  him  vitally.  To  ad- 
minister relief  wisely  one  needs  special  train- 
ing, and  an  inexperienced  visitor  should  seek 
the  advice  of  one  who  knows  the  charitable 
resources  of  his  own  particular  community 
and  the  standard  of  living  of  the  family's 
particular  neighborhood.  There  are  certain 
general  relief  principles  that  common  sense 
and  experience  have  found  to  be  applicable 
everywhere,  however,  and,  avoiding  the  techni- 
cal language  of  charitable  experts,  I  shall  try 
to  state  these  principles  as  briefly  and  clearly 
as  possible,  under  six  heads. 

I.    When  relief   is  needed  in  a  poor  home, 
it   should   be  given  in  the  home  without   any 


146     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

publicity,  and  after  conference  with  the  head 
of  the  family,  who,  if  unable  to  provide  the 
means  of  subsistence  himself,  is  still  responsi- 
ble for  procuring  it.  The  man  of  the  family, 
unless  disabled,  should  do  all  the  asking. 
This  means,  of  course,  that  wives  should  not 
be  sent  to  charity  offices  and  private  families 
to  ask  assistance,  and  that  every  charitable 
agency,  public  and  private,  and  every  church 
worker  and  every  teacher  should  positively 
refuse  to  receive  any  message  or  appeal  for 
relief  sent  by  a  child,  except  in  those  rare 
cases  where  all  the  adult  members  of  the 
family  are  disabled.  The  neglect  of  this 
simple  precaution  has  often  kept  children 
away  from  school,  and  has  tempted  parents 
to  use  them  to  excite  sympathy.  One  sen- 
sational item  in  a  Baltimore  daily,  headed 
*'  Barefooted  through  the  Snow,"  was  the 
account  of  thinly  clad  children  sent  to  the 
police  station  for  relief.  Their  father,  upon 
investigation,  was  found  to  have  taken  their 
shoes  off,  and  sent  them  out  to  do  the  beg- 
ging for  the  family,  after  refusing  a  good 
offer   of   work. 


RELIEF  147 

This  newspaper  item  illustrates  the  danger 
of  giving  publicity  to  individual  cases  of  need. 
The  poor  read  the  papers,  and  when  they 
find  that  sympathy  is  excited  by  sending  chil- 
dren for  relief,  they  are  tempted  to  use  their 
children  in  the  same  way.  Few  worse  things  ';;^ 
can  happen  to  a  poor  family  than  for  their 
distress  to  excite  the  interest  of  an  enter- 
prising journalist,  who  publishes  an  account 
of  the  circumstances  with  name  and  address. 
It  brings  them  an  avalanche  of  relief  some- 
times, but  the  visits  from  sentimental  strangers, 
the  envy  of  their  worst  neighbors  and  the 
disapproval  of  their  best,  the  excitement  and 
uncertainty,  the  repeating  over  and  over  the 
tale  of  their  trouble,  and  the  destruction  of 
all  the  natural  conditions  of  family  life,  leave^ 
behind  a  train  of  demoralization  that  lasts  long 
after  the  relief  has  been  exhausted. 

In  a  less  degree,  the  congregating  of  the  H 
poor  in  any  place  for  a  relief  distribution  is  to 
be  deplored,  whether  the  relief  is  given  out 
upon  presentation  of  an  order  or  not.  The 
standing  in  line,  the  jostling  and  waiting,  the 
gregariousness  and  publicity,  are  demoralizing. 


148     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

Missions,  I  regret  to  say,  sometimes  treat  such 
free  distributions  as  an  advertising  spectacle; 
but  "  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  charity  that 
it  should  be  private,"  and  advertising,  on  the 
other  hand,  presupposes  publicity.  I  have 
often  had  opportunities  to  give  the  poor  tickets 
for  Christmas  dinners,  free  treats,  and  general 
charitable  distributions,  but,  as  I  have  come  to 
know  the  poor  better,  and  to  care  more  for 
their  welfare,  I  have  learned  to  resent  a  charity 
that  would  help  them  in  droves,  as  if  they 
were  cattle.  A  form  of  charitable  relief  that 
appeals  to  many  good  people  in  cold  weather 
is  the  free-soup  kitchen,  where  the  poor  come 
with  their  kettles,  and  "no  questions  are 
asked."  The  hot,  steaming  soup  and  the 
cold,  shivering  applicants  make  a  striking  con- 
trast, and  the  kind-hearted  citizen  is  very  likely 
to  think  of  such  charity  as  "practical,"  and 
denounce  the  people  who  object  to  it  as 
"theorists."  There  is  nothing  practical  about 
a  free-soup  kitchen.  It  is  the  cheapest  of 
cheap  charity.  If  the  weather  is  cold,  people 
must  have  fires  at  home  to  keep  them  from 
freezing,   and  the  gift   of  cooked  food   is   un- 


RELIEF  149 

necessary.  Soup  is  not  the  most  nourishing 
food  to  give,  moreover,  and  the  "no  questions 
asked "  means  that  those  who  need  most  will 
get  least,  and  that  the  crowd  of  sturdy  beggars 
always  attracted  by  such  distributions  will  drive 
away  the  shrinking  poor,  who  need  help  the 
most. 

The  first  relief  principle  is  that  relief  shotdd 
be  given  individually  and  privately  in  the  homey 
and  that  the  head  of  the  family  should  be  con- 
ferred with  on  all  questions  of  relief 

II.  A  due  regard  for  the  self-respect  of  the 
poor  prompts  us,  when  relief  is  needed,  to 
secure  it  from  the  most  natural  source  or 
sources.  A  family  that  still  has  credit  does 
not  need  relief  at  all,  and  it  is  better  for  them 
to  run  in  debt  to  those  who  still  consider  them 
a  fair  business  risk  than  to  receive  charity 
instead.  Next  to  credit,  as  a  natural  resource, 
come  relatives.  Charity  weakens  natural  ties 
by  stepping  in,  unless  it  is  certain  that  relatives 
have  done  all  that  they  can,  or  unless  it  has 
brought  pressure  to  bear,  at  least,  to  induce 
them  to  do  their  part.  Sometimes  relatives 
have  good  reasons,  which  the  charitable  should 


ISO     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

know  and  heed,  for  withholding  relief.  The 
next  source  of  relief  is  friends,  including  neigh- 
bors and  former  employers,  and  a  visitor  who 
is  seeking  aid  for  a  family  may  often  discover 
better  ways  of  helping  by  consulting  with  these. 
The  tendency  of  indiscriminate  charity  is  to 
destroy  neighborliness.  (See  p.  27.)  The  next 
source  is  the  church  to  which  members  of  the 
family  belong,  or  fraternal  societies  of  which 
they  may  have  been  members.  Only  when 
all  these  sources  fail,  and  it  is  not  possible  to 
get  adequate  relief  from  charitable  individuals 
whom  we  can  interest,  should  we  turn  to 
societies  organized  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
relief  to  the  poor,  and,  even  then,  special  so- 
cieties, like  the  St.  Andrew's  Society  for  Scots, 
St.  George's  Society  for  Englishmen,  and  He- 
brew Benevolent  Society  for  Hebrews,  should 
take  precedence  of  general  relief  societies, 
which  were  not  intended  to  assume  other 
people's  charitable  burdens,  but  exist  to  care 
for  the  unbefriended  families  that  cannot  be 
relieved  from  any  more  natural  source. 

There  remains  one  more  source  of  relief  for 
the  poor  in  their  own  homes.      Many  Ameri- 


RELIEF  151 

can  cities  still  give  public  outdoor  relief.  This 
relief  is  called  "public"  because  it  is  voted 
from  funds  collected  by  taxation,  and  it  is  called 
"  outdoor "  to  distinguish  it  from  indoor  or 
institutional  relief.  There  are  several  reasons 
for  regarding  this  as  the  least  desirable  form  of 
relief.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  often  adminis- 
tered by  politicians,  and  becomes  a  source  of 
political  corruption.  But,  what  is  even  more 
important,  it  is  official  and  therefore  not  easily 
adaptable  to  varying  needs.  Private  charities 
can  undertake  a  large  expenditure  for  one 
family,  when  a  large  expenditure  will  put  the 
family  beyond  the  need  of  charity ;  but  official 
relief  must  always  be  hampered  by  the  fear  of 
establishing  a  precedent,  and  inadequate  relief 
is  often  the  result  of  this  fear.  Moreover, 
public  relief  comes  from  what  is  regarded  as 
a  practically  inexhaustible  source,  and  people 
who  once  receive  it  are  likely  to  regard  it  as 
a  right,  as  a  permanent  pension,  implying  no 
obligation  on  their  part.  Even  where  it  is  well 
and  honestly  administered,  as  in  Boston,  the 
most  experienced  charity  workers  regard  it  as 
a   source  of  demoralization   both   to   the   poor 


152      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

and  the  charitable.  No  public  agency  can 
supply  the  devoted,  friendly,  and  intensely  per- 
sonal relation  so  necessary  in  charity.  It  can 
supply  the  gift,  but  it  cannot  supply  the  giver, 
for  the  giver  is  a  compulsory  tax  rate.  Some 
of  the  sources  of  information  on  this  subject 
are  noted  at  the  end  of  the  chapter.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  the  question  any  adequate 
consideration  here,  but  it  will  be  noticed  that 
a  large  majority  of  those  who  have  worked 
as  volunteers  in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  and 
have  watched  the  effects  of  outdoor  relief  in 
these  homes,  are  anxious  to  see  it  abolished 
in  all  our  large  cities,  believing  that  private 
and  voluntary  charity  can  more  than  replace  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  those  who  know  the  poor  in 
another  way  —  in  public  offices  and  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  public  official  —  are  often 
stanch  advocates  of  outdoor  relief. 

The  fewer  sources  of  relief  for  any  one 
family  the  better,  though  it  is  often  impossible 
to  get  adequate  relief  from  one  source.  "  The 
difficulty  in  giving  judiciously  is  great,  even 
where  one  person  or  society  does  the  whole. 
But  when    the    applicant    goes    from   one   to 


RELIEF  153 

another,  undergoing  repeated  temptations  to 
deceive  and  getting  from  no  one  what  is  sufficient 
to  meet  the  full  need,  each  giver  feeling  but 
a  partial  responsibility  in  the  matter,  one  giving 
when  another  has  desired  that  relief  ought  to 
be  withheld,  and  thus  destroying  the  effect  of 
the  other's  action,  we  believe  that  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  judicious  aid  are  greatly  increased. 
.  .  .  We  earnestly  hope  that  the  various  relief- 
giving  agencies  may  adopt  the  plan,  so  far  as 
possible,  of  a  division  of  labor,  each  doing  all 
the  relief-giving  needed  by  those  within  its  care 
and  leaving  others  to  do  the  relief-giving  in 
other  cases."  ^  When,  however,  relief  must 
come  from  a  number  of  sources,  it  does  most 
good  if  given  through  one  channel. 

The  second  relief  principle  is  that  we  should 
seek  the  most  natural  and  least  official  sources  of 
reliefs  bearing  in  mind  the  ties  of  kinships  friend- 
ships and  neighbor linesSf  and  that  we  should 
avoid  the  multiplication  of  sources. 

III.  In  deciding  to  give  or  to  withhold  relief, 
we  should  be  guided  by  its  probable  effect  upon 
the  future  of  the  appHcant.     When  it  is   con- 

^  Fifth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  pp.  31  sq^. 


154     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

ceded  that  we  should  discriminate  at  all  in  giv- 
ing, the  popular  notion  is  that  we  should  give 
to  the  worthy  poor,  and  refuse  aid  to  the  un- 
worthy. The  words  "worthy"  and  "unworthy" 
mean  very  little ;  they  are  mere  catchwords  to 
save  us  from  thinking.  When  we  say  that 
people  are  "  worthy,"  we  mean,  I  suppose,  that 
they  are  worthy  of  material  relief,  but  no  one  is 
so  worthy  as  to  be  absolutely  relief-proof.  If 
relief  is  given  without  plan  or  purpose,  it  will 
injure  the  worthiest  recipient.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  intelligent  visitor  can  often  see  his 
way  clear  to  effect  very  great  improvement  in 
what  are  called  "  unworthy "  cases,  and  may 
find  material  relief  a  necessary  means  to  this  end. 
Better  than  any  hard  and  fast  classification,  is 
the  principle  that  our  relief  should  always  have 
a  future  to  it,  should  be  given  as  part  of  a  care- 
fully devised  plan  for  making  the  recipient  per- 
manently better  off.  The  only  excuse  for  giving 
relief  without  a  plan  is  that  it  is  sometimes  nec- 
essary to  give  what  is  called  "  interim  relief,"  to 
prevent  present  suffering,  until  we  can  learn  all 
the  facts  and  a  plan  can  be  devised.  In  this, 
relief  work  is  very  much  like  doctoring  a  sick 


RELIEF  155 

patient.  We  have  very  little  use  for  a  doctor 
who  does  not  alleviate  suffering  promptly,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  naturally  mistrust  the 
doctor  who  does  not  ask  a  great  many  ques- 
tions, or  who  fails  to  make  a  plan  for  getting 
his  patient  beyond  the  need  of  medicine  as  soon 
as  possible.  Our  relief  work  is  often  nothing 
but  aimless  dosing.  Like  the  doctor,  too,  we 
should  stand  ready  to  change  our  plan  of  treat- 
ment when  conditions  change.  "  In  one  family, 
where  a  pension  was  given  on  account  of  the 
breadwinner's  illness,  and  continued  for  six 
weeks  after  his  death,  the  daughters  have  been 
unwilling  to  take  work  offered  at  wages  they 
thought  too  low,  because  they  were  not  thrown 
upon   their   own  resources  at  once."^ 

A  plan  that  is  not  based  upon  the  actual 
facts  is,  of  course,  worse  than  useless.  Some- 
times a  charitable  person  will  call  at  a  home  for 
the  first  time,  will  see  miserable  surroundings, 
and  will  feel  that  the  circumstances  are  all 
made  plain  to  him  in  one  visit.  Calling  at  a 
relief  office,  he  will  urge  immediate  relief,  add- 
ing,   "  I   have   investigated   the   case    myself." 

1  Eighth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  25. 


156     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

The  word  "  investigation  "  means  very  different 
things  to  different  people.  Here  are  some  of 
the  questions  that,  according  to  the  London 
"  Charity  Organization  Review,"  ^  an  almoner 
should  ask  himself  about  any  given  case ; 

"  I.  Can  anything  be  done  to  increase  the 
family  income  ?  Can  the  number  of  wage- 
earners  be  added  to  ?  Can  those  doing  badly 
paid  work  be  taught  better-paid  work?  Can 
they  be  put  in  the  way  of  getting  better  tools 
or  appliances  ? 

"  2.  Can  anything  be  done  to  make  the 
existing  income  go  farther  than  it  goes  now? 

*'(a)  Is  too  much  money  paid  away  in 
rent  ?  Could  as  good  accommodations  be  ob- 
tained in  the  district  elsewhere  for  less?  Or 
could  the  family  do  with  less  accommodation. 

"(^)  Is  money  wasted?  ^.^.  on  medicine, 
or  in  habitual  pawning,  or  in  purchasing  from 
tallymen,  or  in  buying  things  not  wanted? 
Do  husband  and  children  keep  back  an  undue 
share  of  their  earnings  ? 

"(<:)  Is  too  much  money  spent  in  travelling 

1  Vol.  II,  New  Series,  p.  224. 


RELIEF  157 

backwards  and  forwards  to  place  of  employ- 
ment? If  so,  could  the  family  move  nearer 
to  their  work  without  increasing  their  rent? 

"These  are  but  a  few  of  the  questions 
which  the  almoner  must  put  if  he  wishes  to 
be  thorough.  In  every  case  he  must  think 
about  the  problem  with  which  he  is  dealing, 
and  he  must  try  to  make  those  who  are 
applying  for  help  think  also." 

The  best  arguments  for  giving  relief  upon 
a  definite  plan  are  the  results  of  haphazard 
benevolence  that  are  all  around  us  —  feeble- 
minded women  with  illegitimate  offspring,  chil- 
dren crippled  by  drunken  fathers,  juvenile 
offenders  who  began  as  child-beggars,  aged 
parents  neglected  by  their  children.  Every 
form  of  human  weakness  and  depravity  is 
intensified  by  the  charity  that  asks  no  questions. 

The  third  relief  principle  is  that  relief  should 
look  not  only  to  the  alleviation  of  preseitt  suffer- 
ing^.but  to  promoting  the  future  welfare  of  the 
jrecipient. 

IV.  It  follows  from  the  foregoing  that  when 
we  relieve  at  all  we  should  relieve  adequately. 

"Can  any  one  really  approve  of  inadequate 


158     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

relief?  Can  any  one  really  approve  of  giving 
50  cents  to  a  man  who  must  have  ;^5.oo, 
trusting  that  some  one  else  will  give  the  ;^4.50, 
and  knowing  that,  to  get  it,  the  person  in 
distress  must  spend  not  only  precious  strength 
and  time,  but  more  precious  independence  and 
self-respect?  .  .  . 

"There  are  many  families  in  every  city  who 
get  relief  (only  a  little  to  be  sure,  but  enough 
to  do  harm)  who  ought  never  to  have  one 
cent,  —  families  where  the  man  can  work,  but 
will  not  work.  The  little  given  out  of  pity 
for  his  poor  wife  and  children  really  intensifies 
and  prolongs  their  suffering,  and  only  prevents 
the  man  from  doing  his  duty  by  making  him 
believe  that,  if  he  does  not  take  care  of  them, 
some  one  else  will.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  many  families  who  ought  to  have  their 
whole  support  given  to  them  for  a  few 
years,  —  widows,  for  instance,  who  cannot  both 
take  care  of  and  support  their  children,  and 
yet  who  ought  not  to  have  to  give  them  up 
into  the  blighting  care  of  an  institution ;  and 
these  families  get  nothing,  or  get  so  little  that 
it  does  them   no  good   at   all,  only  serving  to 


RELIEF  159 

keep  them  also  in  misery  and  to  raise  false 
hopes,  or  else  to  teach  them  to  beg  to  make 
up  what  they  must  have. 

"  Ought  not  charitable  people  to  manage  in 
some  way  to  remedy  these  two  opposite  evils? 
—  to  do  more  for  those  who  should  have 
more,  and  to  do  nothing  for  those  who  should 
have  nothing,  saving  money  by  discriminating, 
and  thus  having  enough  to  give  adequate  re- 
lief in  all  cases."  ^ 

By  adequate  relief  charity  workers  do  not 
mean  that  all  apparent  needs  should  be  met. 
There  are  often  resources  that  are  hidden 
from  the  inexperienced  eye,  and  by  ignoring 
these  we  destroy  them. 

The  fourth  relief  principle  is  that^  instead  of 
trying  to  give  a  little  to  very  many^  we  should 
help  adequately  those  that  we  help  at  all. 

V.  We  should  make  the  poor  our  partners 
in  any  effort  to  improve  their  condition,  and 
relief  should  be  made  dependent  upon  their 
doing  what  they  can  for  themselves.  Whether 
we  give  or  do  not  give,  our  reasons  should  be 

1  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty- 
third  National  Conference  of  Charities,  New  Haven,  1895,  P*  49* 


l6o     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

clearly  stated,  and  we  should  avoid  driving 
any  sordid  bargain  with  them.  For  instance, 
it  may  be  wise  sometimes  to  make  relief  con- 
ditional, among  other  things,  upon  attending 
church,  but  to  require  attendance  upon  a 
church  to  which  they  do  not  belong  because 
it  is  our  church,  or  to  let  them  regard  relief 
as  in  any  way  associated  with  making  con- 
verts to  our  way  of  thinking,  is  to  weaken 
our  influence  and  tempt  the  poor  to  deceive  us. 

The  fifth  relief  principle  is  that  we  should 
help  the  poor  to  understand  the  right  relations 
of  things  by  stating  clearly  our  reasons  for 
giving  or  withholding  relief  and  by  requiring 
their  hearty  cooperation  in  all  efforts  for  their 
improvement. 

VI.  The  form  of  relief  must  vary  with  indi- 
vidual circumstances  and  needs.  Work  that 
is  real  work  is  better,  of  course,  than  any 
relief ;  but  there  should  be  a  prejudice  among 
charity  workers  against  sham  work,  for  which 
there  is  no  demand  in  the  market.  Unless 
such  work  is  educational,  or  is  used  to  test 
the  applicant's  willingness  to  work,  it  is  often 
better  to  give  material  relief. 


RELIEF  l6l 

A  charitable  superstition  that  we  should  out- 
grow is  the  notion  that  it  saves  us  from  pauper- 
izing the  poor  to  call  our  gifts  loans.  We 
may  know  that  they  cannot  repay,  and  they 
may  know  that  we  know  it,  but  this  juggling 
with  words  is  still  undeservedly  popular.  When 
the  chances  of  their  being  able  to  repay  are 
reasonably  good,  and  a  loan  is  made,  we  should 
be  as  careful  to  collect  the  debt  as  in  any 
business  transaction. 

Another  charitable  superstition  is  the  prej- 
udice in  favor  of  relief  in  kind  rather  than 
in  money.  We  think  that  bundles  of  groceries 
and  clothes,  and  small  allowances  of  fuel,  can 
do  no  harm,  but  the  fact  is  that,  where  it 
would  be  unsafe  to  give  money,  it  is  usually 
unsafe  to  give  money's  equivalent.  Large 
relief  societies  find  it  more  economical  to  buy 
commodities  in  quantities,  and  so  get  the  ad- 
vantage of  wholesale  prices ;  but,  so  far  as 
the  poor  themselves  are  concerned,  there  is 
no  reason  for  giving  goods  rather  than  cash. 
On  the  contrary,  many  poor  people  can  make 
the  money  go  farther  than  we  can.  Money  in- 
tended for  temporary  relief  should  not  be  used 


1 62      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

for  rent,  however,  except  in  cases  where  eject- 
ment would  seriously  endanger  the  welfare  of 
the  family.  Back  rent  is  like  any  other  back 
debt;  landlords  should  take  their  chances  of 
loss  with  other  creditors.  Nor  should  chari- 
table relief  be  used  to  enable  people  to  move 
from  place  to  place  in  order  to  avoid  the  pay- 
ment of  rent.^ 

When  institutional  care  is  clearly  not  only 
the  most  economical  but  the  most  adequate 
form  of  relief,  we  are  sometimes  justified  in 
refusing  all  other  forms. 

In  cases  where  institutional  care  is  not  practi- 
cable, and  relief  will  be  needed  for  a  long 
period,  it  is  best  to  organize  a  private  pension, 
letting  all  the  natural  sources  of  relief  combine 
and  give  through  one  medium  an  adequate 
amount. 

The  sixth  relief  principle  is  that  we  must 
find  that  form  of  relief  which  will  best  fit  the 
particular  need. 

Though  the  foregoing  six  relief  principles 
could  easily  be  extended  to  twenty,  yet  a  book- 

1  See  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Charity 
Organization  Society,  pp.  44  sq.^  and  p.  55. 


RELIEF  163 

ful  of  such  generalizations  would  be  of  no 
value  to  the  almoner  without  a  detailed  know- 
ledge of  the  neighborhood  into  which  relief  is 
to  go,  and  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
lives  of  the  poor.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that 
a  beginner  in  charity  should  not  decide  relief 
questions  except  in  consultation  with  an  expe- 
rienced worker.  For  instance,  a  new  visitor 
going  to  the  house  of  a  widow  supporting  her 
aged  mother  and  two  children,  may  find  the 
woman  sick,  and  receiving  only  a  small  pit- 
tance in  sick  benefits  from  the  society  to  which 
she  belongs.  There  is  no  apparent  suffering, 
but  the  visitor  at  once  concludes  that  the  in- 
come is  insufficient,  and  applies  to  the  nearest 
relief  agency,  asking  that  coal  be  sent.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  family  income  is  as  large 
as  the  average  income  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  the  woman  has  never  thought  of  asking 
relief;  if  fuel  is  sent,  the  neighbors  all  know 
it,  and,  immediately,  there  is  a  certain  expect- 
ancy aroused,  a  certain  spirit  of  speculation 
takes  the  place  of  the  habit  of  thrift.  There 
seem,  to  the  simple  imaginations  of  these  peo- 
ple, to  be  exhaustless  stores   of   relief,   which 


1 64     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

are  somehow  at  the  command  of  visiting  ladies. 
Take  another  instance  of  a  more  difficult  kind. 
A  family  has  long  passed  the  stage  of  receiv- 
ing relief  for  the  first  time ;  the  man  is  a 
heavy  drinker,  the  household  filthy,  the  chil- 
dren neglected.  They  appeal  at  once  for  as- 
sistance. The  children  need  shoes  to  go  to 
Sunday-school,  the  rent  is  overdue,  the  coal 
is  out.  Confronted  with  such  misery,  the  be- 
ginner is  very  likely  to  give,  and  to  compound 
with  his  conscience  by  giving  "a  little."  This 
is  the  very  treatment  that  has  brought  them 
to  their  present  pass,  and  only  an  experienced 
and  intelligent  almoner  can  tell  how  far  it  is 
wise  to  let  the  forces  of  nature  work  a  cure, 
and  how  far  it  is  wise  to  prevent  extreme  suf- 
fering by  interference. 

One  trouble  in  the  past  has  been  that  the 
agents  employed  by  relief  societies  have  not 
always  been  intelligent,  but  there  have  been 
great  advances  made  in  this  regard,  and  now, 
in  many  communities,  the  agents  of  charitable 
societies  are  active,  intelligent  men  and  women, 
who  have  received  special  training  for  the  work. 
These  agents  are  often  in  communication  with 


I     UNIVERSITY 

V  OF        ..      > 

RELIEF         ^-^£m2Jm^ 

many  sources  of  relief,  and  can  save  us  from 
duplicating  relief  to  the  same  persons  —  from 
sending  it,  that  is,  where  others  are  meeting  the 
same  need  already.  There  are  many  reasons, 
therefore,  for  doing  our  charitable  work  in  con- 
sultation with  an  experienced  almoner,  and 
friendly  visiting,  where  it  has  failed,  has  usually 
failed  through  the  visitor's  unwarranted  assump- 
tion that  the  giving  of  material  relief  was  a 
simple  and  easy  matter,  about  which  charity 
workers  made  an  unnecessary  lot  of  trouble. 


Collateral  Readings:  "The  English  Poor  Law,"  Rev. 
T.  Fowle.  "  The  Beggars  of  Paris,"  translated  from  the 
French  of  M.  Paulian  by  Lady  Herschell.  "Outdoor 
Relief,"  see  Warner's  "American  Charities,"  pp.  162  sg. 
"Economic  and  Moral  Effect  of  Outdoor  Relief,"  Mrs. 
Josephine  Shaw  Lowell  in  Proceedings  of  Seventeenth 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  81  sgf.  "Outdoor 
Relief:  Arguments  for  and  against,"  in  Proceedings  of 
Eighteenth  National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  28  sg. 
"  Relief  in  Work,"  P.  W.  Ayres  in  Proceedings  of  Nine- 
teenth National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  436  sg.  "  Is 
Emergency  Relief  by  Work  Wise  ? "  the  same  in  Proceed- 
ings of  Twenty-second  National  Conference  of  Charities, 
pp.  g6sq. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   CHURCH 

Relief  agents  working  in  our  great  cities 
usually  find  that,  in  answer  to  direct  questions, 
the  poor  are  likely  to  claim  connection  with 
some  one  of  the  large  denominations,  though 
further  acquaintance  will  often  reveal  the  fact 
that  this  connection  is  merely  nominal.  There 
are,  of  course,  many  poor  people  that  are  active 
church  members,  but  in  spite  of  the  wonderful 
activity  of  all  branches  of  the  Christian  church 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  in  spite  of  the  multi- 
plication of  missions  and  the  devotion  of  many 
good  men  and  women  to  their  upbuilding,  the 
fact  remains  that  many  of  the  very  poor  are 
still  outside  the  churches.  In  trying  to  ex- 
plain this,  we  have  to  take  into  account  cer- 
tain external  conditions,  such  as  the  natural 
shrinking  of  the  less  fortunate  from  social 
contact,  and  the  migratory  habits  of  the  poor ; 
i66 


THE  CHURCH  167 

but  another  very  important  factor  in  this 
alienation  is,  I  believe,  the  preoccupation  of 
the  church  with  material  relief  and  with  those 
who  clamor  for  it. 

Some  of  the  very  poor  are  ready  enough  to 
connect  themselves  with  the  church,  but,  attend- 
ing its  services  and  receiving  its  ministrations 
with  the  one  idea  of  getting  assistance,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  of  them  that  they  are  "pious 
for  revenue  only."  And  yet,  in  saying  this,  it  is 
necessary  to  qualify  it  at  once  by  the  statement 
that  the  fault  rests  not  so  much  with  the  ig- 
norant poor  as  with  the  multiplied  and  rival 
church  agencies  that  tempt  them  to  hypocrisy 
and  deceit.  If  the  church  could  only  have  a 
good,  wholesome,  terrifying  vision,  and  see  it- 
self as  the  poor  see  it ! 

"A  friend  of  mine,"  writes  a  London  char- 
ity worker,  "  heard  two  very  respectable  women 
talking.  One  said,  *Well,  Mrs.  Smith,  how 
have  you  fared  this  Christmas  ? '  *  Oh,  very 
badly;  I  had  very  little  relief.'  The  other 
replied:  *Well,  Mrs.  Smith,  it  is  all  your  own 
fault;  you  will  go  and  sit  in  the  side  aisle  of 
the  church,  where  nobody  ever  sees  you.     If 


1 68      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

you  would  sit  in  front,  you  would  be  helped 
as  we  all  are.' "  Writing  of  conditions  too 
common  in  America,  Rev.  George  B.  Safford 
says  :  "  Families  transfer  their  connection  from 
one  church  to  another,  or,  with  an  impartiality 
rare  in  other  relations,  distribute  their  repre- 
sentatives among  several  Sunday-schools  or 
churches,  gaining  by  pseudo-devout  arts  what 
they  can  from  each :  Methodist  clothing ;  Bap- 
tist groceries ;  Presbyterian  meat ;  Episcopalian 
potatoes;  Roman  Catholic  rent;  Universalist 
cash,  available  for  *  sundries,'  —  all  are  accepta- 
ble to  the  mendicant  pensioner  of  religious 
charity.  One  family,  now  at  last  well  adver- 
tised, in  an  eastern  city  found  its  numerous 
youthful  progeny  effective  leeches  as  applied 
to  the  several  Sunday-schools  among  which 
they  were  distributed.  The  *  widowed'  mother 
underwent  frequent  conversion ;  the  children 
enjoyed  the  benefit  of  as  frequent  baptism. 
On  a  certain  gathering  of  clergymen  of  differ- 
ent churches,  when  one  after  another  had  told 
the  story  of  his  discomfiture,  all  joined  to  con- 
gratulate the  single  representative  of  the  Bap- 
tist denomination  present  on  his  happy  escape 


THE  CHURCH  169 

from  the  imposture,  under  which  several  others 
had  in  turn  baptized  the  children.  But  from 
him  came  the  sad  confession  that  he  had  bap- 
tized the  woman  herself."  ^  In  my  own  city, 
a  family  made  a  small  child  not  their  own  a 
source  of  income  by  having  it  baptized  fre- 
quently in  different  churches,  so  that  three 
charitable  members  of  three  Episcopal  churches 
were  astonished  to  find,  on  comparing  notes, 
that  they  shared  the  responsibility  of  being 
the  child's  godmothers. 

But  it  is  needless  to  multiply  illustrations ; 
almost  every  church  has  a  collection  of  such 
experiences,  and  the  bad  effects  of  successful 
deception  upon  the  deceivers  are  apparent 
enough.  I  pass  to  the  important  fact  that 
this  class  of  the  poor,  though  numerically  in- 
significant by  comparison  with  the  poor  in  gen- 
eral, are  yet  so  much  in  evidence  as  the  objects 
of  Christian  zeal,  and  the  church  wastes  so 
much  time  in  coddling  them,  that  the  self-re- 
specting poor  often  hold  aloof.  It  is  a  common 
thing  to  hear  a  poor  man  say  that  he  is  not 
going  to  attend  church,  and  be  suspected   of 

1  "  Charities  Review,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  26  sq. 


170     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

trying  to  get  something.  It  does  not  increase 
his  respect  for  Christians  to  find  them  easily 
deceived,  and  it  outrages  his  sense  of  justice 
to  see  that  laziness,  drunkenness,  and  vice  are 
rewarded  by  church  workers.  Even  among 
tramps,  the  variety  known  as  the  "mission 
bum "  is  looked  down  upon  by  his  fellows, 
and  there  is  a  lesson  for  the  mission  worker 
in  this  simple  fact. 

In  writing  thus  frankly  of  home  missionary 
work,  I  am  not  unmindful  of  all  the  difficulties 
with  which  Christian  ministers  have  to  contend. 
Many  of  them  are  as  much  alive  to  the  dangers 
of  indiscriminate  relief  as  any  one  can  be,  and 
many  of  them  have  risked  unpopularity  and 
misunderstanding  to  lift  their  churches  out  of 
the  tread-mill  of  ineffectual,  dole-dispensing 
charities  into  vital  contact  with  the  needs  of 
the  poor.  The  difficulties  of  Christian  minis- 
ters are  twofold.  Their  first  duty  is  to  develop 
the  charitable  instincts  of  church  members,  to 
overcome  the  selfishness  and  inertia  of  the  nat- 
ural man.  When  they  have  succeeded  in  arous- 
ing a  desire  to  do  something  for  somebody  else, 
they  must  also  furnish  ample  opportunity  for 


THE  CHURCH  171 

the  exercise  of  this  newly  awakened  impulse. 
Now  the  charitable  development  of  the  individ- 
ual follows  the  development  of  the  race ;  the 
individual  outgrows  slowly,  if  at  all,  the  senti- 
mental and  patronizing  view  of  poverty.  To 
carry  church  members  beyond  this  phase  and 
make  them  effective  workers,  genuine  powers 
of  leadership  are  needed,  and  it  is  much  easier 
to  let  them  follow  their  own  devices.  We  have 
seen  in  the  last  chapter  that  relief  work,  if 
well  done,  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  charita- 
ble work,  but  nine  inexperienced  workers  out 
of  every  ten  will  think  it  the  best  and  easiest 
means  of  helping  the  poor  —  the  only  means, 
in  fact. 

A  difficulty  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  yet 
one  with  which  it  is  hard  to  have  any  patience, 
is  the  rank  materialism  that  regards  relief  as 
a  legitimate  means  of  attracting  people  to  the 
church.  Relief  as  a  gospel  agency  has  done 
far  more  harm  than  good :  you  cannot  buy  a 
Christian  without  getting  a  bad  bargain,  and 
yet,  competition  among  rival  churches  working 
in  the  same  poor  neighborhood  is  so  sharp 
that  even  now,  in   these   days   of   cooperative 


172      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

effort,  we  find  that  the  sordid  appeal  is  made. 
"I  call  it  waste,"  wrote  the  late  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  ''when  money  is  laid  out  upon 
instinct  which  ought  to  be  laid  out  upon  prin- 
ciple, and  waste  of  the  worst  possible  kind 
when  two  or  three  religious  bodies  are  working 
with  one  eye  to  the  improvement  of  the  con- 
dition of  those  whom  they  help,  and  with  an- 
other eye  directed  to  getting  them  within  the 
circle  of  their  own  organization.  When  each 
of  those  religious  bodies  does  so  work,  say 
upon  a  single  large  family,  and,  feeling  quite 
sure  of  one  member  of  the  family,  nourishes 
great  hopes  of  the  rest  of  the  members  of  the 
family  that  they  will  become  true  and  ortho- 
dox members  of  their  own  community,  I  call 
that  not  only  waste — I  call-  it  demoralization 
of  the  worst  conceivable  kind,  for  a  reason 
which  the  poet  puts  thus,  'What  shall  bless 
when  holy  water  banes  ? '  The  demoralization 
produced  is  the  worst  possible,  because  the 
highest  possible  thoughts  are  used  as  mere 
instruments  for  low  ends."  ^ 

1  "  Occasional  Papers  of  the  London  Charity  Organization 
Society,"  p.  35. 


THE  CHURCH  1 73 

One  result  of  using  relief  as  a  bribe  is 
that  the  gift  no  longer  has  for  its  sole  object 
the  relief  of  distress,  or  the  restoration  of 
the  receiver  to  independence,  and  is  likely, 
therefore,  to  be  inadequate.  "  One  clergy- 
man with  whom  I  remonstrated  on  the  use- 
lessness  of  giving  is.  when  20s.  was  needed, 
said  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  do  as  we 
did  and  give  adequate  relief,  as  it  would 
cause  jealousy  amongst  both  district  visitors 
and  parishioners  if  he  gave  more  to  one 
case  than  to  another,  so  2s.  6d.  was  generally 
the  limit."  ^ 

In  enumerating  the  natural  sources  of  re- 
lief, I  have  mentioned  the  church  after  rela- 
tives, friends,  and  neighbors.  The  church  is 
not  a  natural  source  of  relief  when  it  becomes 
a  general  relief  agency,  giving  inadequate 
doles  to  large  numbers  of  dependents.  It  is 
a  natural  source  of  relief  for  those  who  have 
sought  its  ministrations  from  religious  motives ; 
when  these  become  dependent,  it  is  the 
church's   privilege  to  aid  them  privately,  ten- 

1  Miss  Pickton  in  London  **  Charity  Organization  Review," 
Vol.  X,  p.  538. 


174    FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

derly,  and  adequately.  Even  beyond  its  own 
membership,  the  church  can  safely  undertake 
the  giving  of  material  relief,  when  this  is 
incidental  to  the  carrying  out  of  other  plans 
for  the  benefit  of  the  poor;  incidental,  for 
instance,  to  the  work  of  friendly  visiting,  with 
a  view  to  furthering  a  visitor's  plans  for  im- 
proving a  family's  condition.  But  the  gift 
must  be  free  from  the  suspicion  of  prosely- 
tizing. 

Protestants  often  criticise  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic church  for  expecting  the  very  poor  to 
pay  toward  the  support  of  the  church.  They 
criticise,  in  their  ignorance,  one  of  the  wisest 
measures  taken  by  the  Church  of  Rome  for 
strengthening  its  hold  upon  the  people.  Poor 
Roman  Catholics  are  far  more  likely  than 
poor  Protestants  to  think  of  the  church  as 
belonging  to  them,  as  a  power  which  exists 
not  only  for  them  but  through  them.  Wher- 
ever the  Protestant  church  has  gained  an 
equally  strong  hold  upon  the  poor,  it  has 
made  equal  demands  upon  their  loyalty  and 
self-sacrifice. 

After  all  has  been  said  in  objection  to  past 


THE  CHURCH  1 75 

and  present  methods  of  church  charity,  we  — 
must  realize  that,  if  the  poor  are  to  be  effect- 
ually helped  by  charity,  the  inspiration  must 
come  from  the  church.  The  church  has  4- 
always  been  and  will  continue  to  be  the  '  / 
chief  source  of  charitable  energy;  and  I  be- 
lieve that,  to  an  increasing  degree,  the  church 
will  be  the  leader  in  charitable  experiment 
and  in  the  extension  of  the  scope  of  chari- 
table endeavor.  In  the  church  or  nowhere 
we  must  find  acceptance  for  the  methods 
advocated  in  this  book.  In  the  church  or 
nowhere  we  must  seek  the  organized  devo- 
tion that  shall  protect  the  children  of  the 
poor  from  greed  and  neglect,  that  shall  ad- 
vance sanitary  and  educational  reforms,  that 
shall  supply  purer  and  higher  amusements 
for  the  people,  and  shall  bring  to  them  more 
and  more,  as  time  goes  on,  of  the  advantages 
of  modern  life.  The  church  has  already  been 
the  pioneer  in  such  work.  In  cities  where 
kindergartens  are  now  a  part  of  the  public 
school  system,  the  first  free  kindergartens 
were  supported  by  the  churches,  and  large 
charities,  now   secularized,  were  supported  by 


176     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

churches  until  they  had  passed  the  stage  of 
experiment.  Secular  agencies  are  still  depend- 
ent upon  the  churches  for  workers  that  can 
bring  the  right  spirit  to  charitable  work. 

Instead  of  multiplying  agencies  needlessly, 
the  city  churches  will  find  it  to  the  advantage 
of  their  spiritual  work  to  keep  up  vital  con- 
nection with  city  charities.  A  clergyman  who 
has  an  active  church  in  one  of  our  eastern 
cities,  has  abandoned  the  plan  of  starting 
separate  church  schools,  societies,  or  institu- 
tions, realizing  that  many  of  these  are  un- 
necessary, and  that  many  others,  necessary 
in  themselves,  are  inadequately  supported. 
His  people  are  sent  instead,  according  to 
their  aptitudes,  to  hospitals,  children's  chari- 
ties, societies  for  visiting  the  needy,  alms- 
houses, and  homes  for  the  aged.  It  may  be 
objected  that  the  shoulder-to-shoulder  contact, 
the  strength  of  concentration,  is  lacking  in 
such  a  plan.  But  the  church  holds  frequent 
congregational  meetings,  where  all  who  have 
been  detailed  to  serve  as  friendly  visitors, 
hospital  workers,  etc.,  report  to  the  church 
and    to    the    minister.      Each    one    learns    in 


THE  CHURCH  177 

this  way  from  the  work  of  the  others;  weak 
points  in  the  city's  plans  for  deaHng  with 
the  poor  are  made  apparent;  and  the  church 
is  able  by  united  effort  to  obtain  needed  re- 
forms. The  work  is  understood  to  be  a  prac- 
tical application  of  the  gospel  as  taught  from 
the  church  pulpit,  and  there  is  a  natural  and 
vital  connection  between  the  spiritual  and 
social  life  of  the  church  community.  Two 
other  advantages  are  apparent.  The  elas- 
ticity of  the  plan  makes  it  possible  to  find 
work  adapted  to  many  varying  capacities,  and 
all  denominational  rivalry,  all  petty  jealousy 
is  avoided. 

The  friendly  visitor  from  such  a  church 
will  not  visit  the  poor  with  a  view  to  winning 
them  away  from  other  churches  to  his  own. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  will  see  the  importance 
of  some  church  connection,  and  will  strive 
to  restore  church  relations,  if  they  have  been 
severed,  by  urging  attendance  upon  the  ser- 
vices of  the  church  and  Sunday-school  to 
which  the  family  naturally  belongs.  He  will 
seek  the  help  of  this  church's  minister  in  any 
plans  he  may  make  for  furthering  the  family 


1 78     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

welfare,  and,  in  this  way,  a  spirit  of  coopera- 
tion between  churches  of  different  denomina- 
tions will  be  encouraged. 

I  cannot  leave  this  part  of  my  subject  with- 
out mentioning  one  other  matter,  though  it 
is  only  indirectly  connected  with  friendly  visit- 
ing. The  training  of  ministers  in  our  theologi- 
cal seminaries  should  include  a  thorough  course 
of  instruction  in  charitable  work.  This  would 
enable  ministers  to  guide  the  work  of  their 
people  in  the  best  channels,  and  it  would  save 
them,  moreover,  from  the  discouragements  of 
the  conscientious  worker  who  is  striving  to 
improve  social  conditions  without  any  clear 
conception  of  the  scope  and  limitations  of 
such  service.  There  are  many  clergymen 
whose  experience  and  opportunities  for  study 
fit  them  for  leadership  in  an  attempt  to  estab- 
lish systematic  training  in  the  seminaries.  A 
demand  from  the  laity  for  more  experienced 
direction  in  church  charity  would  also  help  to 
hasten  the  introduction  of  regular  seminary 
courses  in  applied  philanthropy. 


CHAPTER   XI 


THE   FRIENDLY   VISITOR 


I  HAVE  tried  to  make  a  number  of  specific 
suggestions  in  the  foregoing  pages,  but  it  is 
needless  to  say  that  only  a  few  of  these  are 
likely  to  be  useful  to  any  one  visitor,  and  it 
would  be  fatal  to  apply  them  all  to  one  family. 
In  the  effort  to  be  specific,  I  fear  that  I  may 
have  been  as  exasperating  as  the  cook-books, 
which,  in  a  similar  effort,  will  suggest,  "take 
a  salamander,"  or  "take  a  slip  of  endive," 
when  neither  is  obtainable.  Cook-books  have 
their  modest  uses,  however,  and  the  cooks 
who  are  most  skilful  in  skipping  recipes  not 
intended  for  them  will  turn  the  others  to  the 
best  account. 

In    avoiding    the    danger    of    representing 

friendly    visiting    as    a    pleasant    diversion,    I 

may    have    gone    to    the    other   extreme,    and 

represented  it  rather  as  an  arduous  and  exact- 

179 


l8o      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

ing  profession.  It  is  so  far  from  being  this, 
that  professional  visiting  can  never  be  friendly. 
In  fact,  friendly  visiting  is  not  any  of  the  things  I 
already  described  in  this  book.  It  is  not  wise 
measures  of  relief;  it  is  not  finding  employ- 
ment; it  is  not  getting  the  children  in  school 
or  training  them  for  work ;  it  is  not  improving 
sanitary  arrangements  and  caring  for  the  sick ; 
it  is  not  teaching  cleanliness  or  economical 
cooking  or  buying;  it  is  not  enforcing  habits 
of  thrift  or  encouraging  healthful  recreations. 
It  may  be  a  few  of  these  things,  or  all  of 
them,  but  it  is  always  something  more. 
Friendly  visiting  means  intimate  and  continu- 
ous knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with  a  poor 
family's  joys,  sorrows,  opinions,  feelings,  and 
entire  outlook  upon  life.  The  visitor  that  has 
this  is  unlikely  to  blunder  either  about  relief 
or  any  detail;  without  it,  he  is  almost  certain, 
in  any  charitable  relations  with  members  of 
the  family,  to  blunder  seriously.  Visitors  have 
said  to  me  that  they  could  not  see  that  they 
had  been  of  any  special  service,  though  their 
friendly  feeling  for  certain  families  made  it 
impossible    to    stop    visiting.       These    visitors 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  l8l 

who  have  no  story  to  tell  have  often  done  the 
greatest  good.  "One  of  the  women  we  had 
not  seen  since  she  first  came  to  us  some  four 
years  before,"  writes  Miss  Frances  Smith, 
"and  we  remembered  her  distinctly  as  quite 
ordinary  then.  Imagine  our  surprise  in  find- 
ing that  a  certain  dignity  and  earnestness, 
akin  to  that  of  the  visitor,  had  crept  into  this 
woman's  life,  and  found  expression  in  her 
face  and  bearing.  Such  transfigurations  can- 
not take  place  in  a  few  weeks  or  months ;  they 
are  of  slow  growth,  but  they  are  the  best  re- 
wards of  friendship."  ^ 

The  rewards  of  friendly  visiting'  and  the 
best  results  of  such  work  are  obviously  not 
dependent  upon  the  suggestions  of  a  hand- 
book. As  Miss  Octavia  Hill  has  said,  suc- 
cess in  this  depends  no  more  on  rules  than 
does  that  of  a  young  lady  who  begins  house- 
keeping. "  Certain  things  she  should  indeed 
know;  but  whether  she  manages  well  or  ill 
depends  mainly  upon  what  she  is."  Life, 
therefore,  is  the  best  school.    Meddlesomeness, 

1  Proceedings  of  Twenty-second  Conference  of  Charities, 
1895,  p.  88. 


1 82      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

lack  of  tact,  impatience  for  results,  careless- 
ness in  keeping  engagements  and  promises, 
will  be  as  fatal  here  as  anywhere. 

When  we  are  depressed  by  a  family's  troubles 
and  are  striving  earnestly  to  find  a  way  out, 
theirs  seem  quite  unlike  any  other  troubles. 
In  a  sense,  it  is  true  that  they  are  unlike ;  but 
there  are  certain  resemblances  between  human 
beings,  even  when  a  continent  divides  them  ; 
and,  unsafe  though  it  may  be  to  administer 
charity  by  rule,  it  is  more  unsafe  to  administer 
it  without  reference  to  certain  general  princi- 
ples. Many  of  the  suggestions  of  this  book 
are  not  of  universal  application,  but,  in  bring- 
ing it  to  a  close,  I  shall  endeavor  to  state  a 
few  principles  that  apply  quite  universally  to 
friendly  visiting. 

I.  The  friendly  visitor  should  get  well  ac- 
quainted with  all  the  members  of  the  family 
without  trying  to  force  their  confidence.  A 
fault  of  beginners  is  that  they  are  unwilling 
to  wait  for  the  natural  development  of  trust 
and  friendliness.  "They  expect  to  make  a 
half  dozen  visits  on  a  poor  family  inside  of 
a  month,"  says  Miss  Birtwell,  "and  see  them 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  183 

helped.  Now,  which  one  of  us  ever  had  our 
lives  strongly  influenced  by  a  friendship  of  a 
month's  standing?  ...  I  once  heard  a  ser- 
mon which  made  an  impression  on  my  mind 
that  has  remained  with  me  for  years.  One 
of  its  main  ideas  was  to  get  your  influence 
before  you  used  it.  Many  people  seem  to 
think  that  if  they  can  visit  a  poor  family,  by 
virtue  of  their  superior  education  and  culture, 
they  must  immediately  have  a  very  strong 
influence.  They  do  not  get  it  that  way. 
They  must  get  it  just  as  our  friends  get  an 
influence  over  us,  by  long,  patient  contact, 
and  by  the  slow,  natural  growth  of  friend- 
ship." 1 

Patience  is  difficult  where  we  see  so  many 
things  to  be  done,  and  it  is  particularly  diffi- 
cult where  there  is  actual  need ;  but  the  visitor 
does  not  go  to  act  as  a  substitute  for  the 
forces,  charitable  or  other,  that  have  kept  the 
family  alive  so  far.  He  must  confer  with 
sources  of  relief  that  are  or  can  be  interested, 
but  beyond  this  he  must  have  the  courage  to 

1  Proceedings  of  International  Congress  of  Charities,  volume 
on  "  Organization  of  Charities,"  p.  21. 


1 84     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

do  nothing  until  he  knows  what  is  the  right 
thing  to  do. 

It  is  not  possible  to  visit  many  families,  but 
there  are  definite  advantages  in  visiting  more 
than  one  —  the  usual  limit  should  be  not  less 
than  two  nor  more  than  four.  An  advantage 
in  visiting  two  families  is  that  the  visitor  is 
less  likely  to  be  feverishly  active  during  the 
earlier  stages  of  acquaintance,  and  the  con- 
trasts and  resemblances  between  the  two  give 
the  visitor  a  better  grasp  of  principles.  Not 
only  is  a  new  visitor  liable  to  err  in  overvisit- 
ing  a  family,  but  some  families  have  too  many 
charitable  visitors.  The  New  York  visitor, 
who  refused  to  go  to  a  family  on  whom  three 
charity  workers  had  lately  called,  was  wise. 
There  are  families  so  clearly  overvisited  that 
all  who  are  charitably  interested  in  them 
should  be  persuaded  to  let  them  alone  for  a 
while. 

It  ought  to  be  unnecessary  to  add  that  the 
winter  is  not  the  only  time  for  charitable  work. 
Our  poor  friends  need  us  quite  as  much  in 
summer,  though  many  charities  are  less  active 
then.     When  we  are  away  in  summer  we  can 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  185 

write,  and  when  we  are  in  town  for  a  short 
while  we  can  often  find  time  for  a  visit. 
Charitable  work  suffers  from  the  tradition  that 
the  only  time  to  be  charitable  is  when  it  is 
cold. 

Next  to  uninterrupted  visiting  as  a  means 
of  getting  acquainted,  comes  the  power  of 
taking  our  own  interests  with  us  when  we 
visit.  "In  our  contact  with  poor  people  we 
do  not  always  give  ourselves  as  generously 
as  we  might.  Intent  upon  finding  out  about 
them,  we  forget  that  they  might  be  interested 
to  hear  about  us.  Would  it  not  be  well  if, 
instead  of  always  giving  sympathy,  we  some- 
times asked  it?  It  is  often  striking,  if  we 
tell  them  about  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  our 
friends,  to  note  how  they  respond,  often  in- 
quiring about  them  afterward.  Such  mutual 
relationship  broadens  their  meagre  lives,  and 
makes  our  contact  with  them  more  human.  A 
visitor,  who  has  undertaken  during  the  sum- 
mer the  families  of  another  too  far  away  to 
visit,  wrote :  *  I  want  to  tell  you  what  a  matter 
of  interest  and  pleasure  it  has  been  to  me,  in 
visiting  your  families,  to  find  that  what  they 


1 86      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

really  seemed  to  value  was  your  personal 
friendship  for  them,  and  how  they  treasured 
any  little  incident  you  had  told  them  of  your- 
self and  your  travels.' "^ 

One  who  visits  in  this  spirit  always  wins 
more  of  pleasure  and  of  profit  from  the  work. 
In  fact,  it  is  never  the  visited  only  that  are 
benefited. 

2.  In  getting  acquainted,  the  visitor  has  the 
definite  object  of  trying  to  improve  the  con- 
,^  dition  of  the  family.  This  is  impossible  un- 
t  less  he  has  a  fairly  accurate  knowledge  of 
\  the  main  facts  of  the  family  history.  Char- 
ity workers  often  come  to  me  for  advice 
about  individual  families,  and  reveal  in  a  few 
minutes'  conversation  that  they  have  no  know- 
ledge of  the  condition  of  those  they  would 
help.  The  head  of  the  family  is  sick,  it  may 
be,  and  they  expect  prompt  advice  as  to  the 
best  way  to  help  him ;  but  they  have  not  taken 
the  trouble  to  see  the  dispensary  doctor  who 
attends  him,  or  to  find  out  in  some  other  way 
the  nature  of  his  disease;  or  perhaps  the  boy 
is   out   of   work,  but  they  have   not   seen   his 

1  Eleventh  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  31. 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  187 

former  employer  and  know  nothing  of  his 
earning  capacity  or  references.  Charitable 
skill  is  not  a  sort  of  benevolent  magic;  it  is 
based  on  common  sense,  and  must  work  in 
close  contact  with  the  facts  of  life.  In  other 
friendly  relations  we  recognize  this,  and  in 
our  charity  work  too,  whether  by  investigation 
of  a  trained  agent  or  by  our  own  inquiries,  we 
must  have  the  facts  before  we  can  find  out 
the  best  way  to  help.  One  advantage  of  visit- 
ing under  the  guidance  of  a  charity  organiza- 
tion society  is  that  a  thorough  investigation 
has  been  made  of  the  family  circumstances 
before  the  visitor  is  sent. 

The  following  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  facts 
that  should  be  known,  if  a  plan  is  to  be 
made  for  the  family's  benefit : 

(a)  Social  History.  —  Names ;  ages ;  birth- 
places ;  marriage ;  number  of  rooms  occupied  ; 
education  ;  children's  school ;  names,  addresses, 
and  condition  of  relatives  and  friends ;  church ; 
previous  residences. 

(b)  Physical  History.  —  Health  of  each  mem- 
ber of  the  family ;  name  of  doctor ;  habits. 

(c)  Work    History.  —  Occupations ;     names 


1 88     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

and  addresses  of  present  and  former  employ- 
ers; how  long  and  at  what  seasons  usually 
in  work;  how  long  out  of  work  now;  earn- 
ing capacity   of   each  worker. 

(d)  Financial  History.  —  Rent  ;  landlord  ; 
debts,  including  instalment  purchases;  bene- 
ficial societies  ;  trade-union  ;  life  insurance ; 
pawn  tickets ;  has  family  ever  saved  and  how 
much?;  present  savings;  income;  present 
means  of  subsistence  other  than  wages;  pen- 
sions ;  relief,  sources,  and  amount ;  charities 
interested. 

In  addition  to  these  detached  facts,  there 
is  also  needed  whatever  other  facts  will  make 
a  fairly  complete  brief  biography  of  the  heads 
of  the  family,  including  a  knowledge  of  their 
hopes  and  plans.  The  statements  of  relatives 
and  friends,  their  theory  as  to  the  best  method 
of  aiding,  together  with  some  definite  promise 
as  to  what  they  themselves  will  do;  the  state- 
ments of  pastor  or  Sunday-school  teacher,  of 
doctor,  former  employers,  and  former  land- 
lords; and  the  statements  and  experiences 
also  of  others  charitably  interested  may  be 
needed  before  an  effective  plan  can  be  made. 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  1 89 

Inquiries  of  present  employers  and  land- 
lords should  be  made  with  extreme  care,  if 
at  all,  as  they  might  create  prejudice  against 
those  we  would  help. 

The  outline  here  given  of  the  facts  needed 
is  best  filled  in  by  a  competent  trained  agent, 
rather  than  by  the  friendly  visitor,  whose  rela- 
tions with  the  family  render  searching  inquiry 
difficult  and  often  undesirable.  But  the  mer- 
cifulness of  a  thorough  investigation  is  that, 
once  well  done,  it  need  not  be  repeated,  and 
by  saving  endless  blundering  it  also  saves  a 
family  from  much  charitable  meddling.  Its 
seemingly  inquisitorial  features  are  justified  by 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  made  with  any  purpose 
of  finding  people  out,  but  with  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  finding  out  how  to  help  them. 

3.  Gathering  facts  about  the  poor  without 
making  any  effort  to  use  these  facts  for  ^their 
good  has  been  compared  to  harrowing  the 
ground  without  sowing  the  seed.  The  facts 
should  be  made  the  basis  of  a  well-considered 
plan.  It  may  be  necessary  to  modify  our 
plans  often,  as  circumstances  change  or  new 
facts  are  discovered;  but  a  plan  of   treatment: 


190      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

is  as  indispensable  to  the  charity  worker  as 
to  the  physician.  Our  plans  must  not  ignore 
the  family  resources  for  self-help.  The  best 
charity  work  develops  these  resources.  If 
outside  help  is  needed,  it  should  be  made 
conditional  upon  renewed  efforts  at  work  or 
in  school,  upon  willingness  to  receive  training, 
upon  cleanliness,  or  upon  some  other  develop- 
ment within  the  family  that  will  aid  in  their 
uplifting.  All  this  is  suggested,  not  with  a 
view  to  making  the  conditions  of  relief  diffi- 
cult, but  with  a  view  to  using  relief  as  a 
lever;  or,  as  some  one  has  put  it,  we  should 
make  our  help  a  ladder  rather  than  a  crutch, 
and  every  sensible,  reasonable  condition  is  a 
round  in  the  ladder. 

Our  plans  for  the  benefit  of  one  family 
must  not  ignore  the  possible  effects  of  our 
action  upon  other  families.  This  is  a  hard 
lesson  to  learn,  but  a  plan  that  might  be 
kind  and  effective,  if  there  were  only  one 
poor  family  in  the  city,  is  often  unfair  and 
even  cruel,  because  it  rouses  hopes  in  others 
which  can  never  be  fulfilled.  In  other  words, 
we   must   be    just   as   well    as    merciful.       A 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  191 

knowledge  of  the  neighborhood  and  of  the 
circumstances  of  other  poor  famiUes  is  neces- 
sary in  judging  of  the  justice  of  a  plan,  and 
here  the  criticism  and  advice  of  an  experi- 
enced charity  worker  will  be  very  helpful. 

It  is  necessary  also  to  guard  against  mak- 
ing our  plans  with  reference  to  nothing  but 
the  present  emergency.  We  must  have  a 
view  to  the  future  of  the  family,  and  must 
think  not  only  of  what  will  put  them  out  of 
immediate  need,  but  of  what  is  most  likely 
to  make  them  permanently  self-supporting,  if 
this  be  possible.  There  are,  of  course,  families 
that  can  never  be  made  entirely  self-support- 
ing. These,  if  we  consider  only  the  cases  for 
which  it  is  thought  best  to  provide  outside  of 
institutions,  will  be  the  exceptions;  but  in  mak- 
ing plans  for  the  welfare  of  such  families  we 
must  try  to  organize  help  that  shall  be  as 
regular  and  systematic  as  possible.  Next  to 
having  to  depend  upon  charitable  resources  at 
all,  the  most  demoralizing  thing  is  to  be  depend- 
ent upon  uncertain  and   spasmodic  charity. 

4.  In  plans  looking  to  the  removal  of  the 
causes    of    distress,    the    greatest    patience   is 


192      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

needed,  and  we  must  learn  also,  if  we  would 
succeed,  to  win  the  cooperation  of  others 
charitably  interested.  If  our  plan  with  regard 
to  a  family  is  likely  to  prove  permanently 
helpful,  and  we  are  able  to  persuade  others 
to  work  with  us  in  carrying  it  out,  we  are  not 
only  helping  the  family,  but  we  are  educating 
others  in  common-sense  methods.  In  persuad- 
ing to  an  important  step,  the  value  of  coopera- 
tion is  illustrated  by  an  instance  taken  from 
the  Fourteenth  Report  of  the  Boston  Associ- 
ated Charities  :  ^  "  A  respectable  woman,  who 
had  struggled  for  a  year  to  keep  her  insane 
husband  with  her  and  the  little  girls,  at  great 
risk  to  them  and  the  neighborhood,  was  per- 
suaded in  but  a  few  days  to  let  him  go  to 
the  lunatic  hospital.  Of  course,  as  strangers, 
our  opinions  were  entitled  to  little  weight;  but 
by  collecting  the  doctor's  opinions  and  those 
of  her  own  friends,  all  of  which  she  had  heard 
singly,  she  was  sufficiently  impressed  to  take 
the  long  necessary  step." 

5.  Though  we  must  make  plans  looking  tow- 
ard self-support,  these   are  not  the  only  plans 
1  p.  27. 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  193 

within  the  scope  of  friendly  visiting.  Some 
of  the  best  visiting  can  be  done  after  families 
are  no  longer  in  need.  The  entry  "dismissed 
—  self-sustaining"  on  charitable  records  has  a 
very  unsatisfactory  sound  to  those  who  realize 
the  further  possibilities  of  friendly  help.  After 
a  family  has  learned  to  live  without  charitable 
aid,  there  is  a  better  chance  of  introducing 
its  members  to  thrifty  ways  of  spending  and 
saving,  to  better  recreations,  and  to  healthier 
and  more  cleanly  surroundings. 

6.  Our  work  as  friendly  visitors  is  an 
intensely  personal  work,  and,  unlike  other 
charity,  it  is  best  done  alone.  We  cannot  visit 
in  companies  of  two  or  three,  nor  can  we 
talk  very  much  about  our  poor  friends,  except 
to  those  charitably  interested,  without  spoiling 
our  relations  with  them.  The  district  system 
of  visiting  among  the  poor,  which  is  still  the 
system  of  German  towns  and  of  English 
parishes,  assigns  a  certain  geographical  boun- 
dary to  each  visitor.  It  has  been  called  the 
"  space  system  "  in  contrast  to  the  "  case  sys- 
tem" of  friendly  visiting.  The  main  objec- 
tion to  it  is  that  it  is  not  personal  enough. 


194     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

One  who  is  a  friend  to  a  whole  street  is  not 
felt  by  the  members  of  any  particular  family 
to  belong  peculiarly  to  them,  and  there  is 
danger,  moreover,  of  more  official  relations 
and  of  small  jealousies  and  neighborhood  en- 
tanglements that  are  avoided  by  the  friendly 
visiting  plan. 

The  district  visitor  is  the  ancestor  of  the 
friendly  visitor.  Brewing  a  bit  of  broth  for  an 
aged  cottager,  reading  beside  some  sick-bed, 
sewing  a  warm  garment  for  Peggy  or  Nancy 
—  it  is  thus  that  our  ancestors  lightly  skimmed 
the  surface  of  social  conditions.  It  wpuld  ill 
become  us  to  speak  slightingly  of  the  work  of 
those  who  have  handed  down  to  us  a  precious 
freight  of  human  sympathy  and  tenderness. 
If  heavier  burdens  of  responsibility,  more  seri- 
ous problems  and  more  strenuous  ideals  are 
now  imposed  upon  us,  we  have  also  many 
advantages  that  were  undreamed  of  a  hundred 
years  ago.  Now,  if  we  would  be  charitable, 
and  possess  any  power  of  using  the  forces  at 
our  command,  there  are  hundreds  of  avenues 
of  usefulness  open  to  us  where  formerly  there 
was    only  one,    and    there    are    hundreds    of 


THE  FRIENDLY  VISITOR  195 

agencies  ready  to  help.  We  must  know  how- 
to  work  with  others,  and  we  must  know  how 
to  work  with  the  forces  that  make  for  prog- 
ress ;  friendly  visiting,  rightly  understood,  turns 
all  these  forces  to  account,  working  with  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  age  to  forward  the 
advance  of  the  plain  and  common  people  into 
a  better  and  larger  life. 


Collateral  Readings :  "  Friendly  or  Volunteer  Visiting," 
Miss  Zilpha  D.  Smith  in  Proceedings  of  Eleventh  National 
Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  69  sq.  "  Friendly  Visiting," 
Mrs.  Marian  C.  Putnam  in  Proceedings  of  Fourteenth 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  149  sq.  "  Class  for 
the  Study  of  Friendly  Visiting,"  Mrs.  S.  E.  Tenney  in 
Proceedings  of  Nineteenth  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties, pp.  455  sq.  "  The  Education  of  the  Friendly  Visitor," 
Miss  Z.  D.  Smith  in  Proceedings  of  Nineteenth  National 
Conference  of  Charities,  pp.  445  sq.  "  Friendly  Visiting," 
Mrs.  Roger  Wolcott  in  Proceedings  of  International  Con- 
gress of  Charities,  1893,  volume  on  "Organization  of 
Charities,"  pp.  108  j^.  Also  Miss  F.  C.  Prideaux  in  same 
volume,  pp.  369  sq.  and  discussion,  pp.  15  sq.  "Con- 
tinued Care  of  Families,"  Frances  A.  Smith  in  Proceedings 
of  Twenty-second  National  Conference  of  Charities,  pp. 
87  sq.  "  Friendly  Visiting  as  a  Social  Force,"  Charles  F. 
Weller  in  Proceedings  of  Twenty-fourth  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities,  pp.  199  sq.  "Company  Manners," 
Florence  Converse  in  "Atlantic,"  January,  1898.  (This 
story  is  not  a  fair  picture  of  associated  charity  methods, 
but  points  out  one  of  the  dangers  of  spasmodic  visiting.) 


APPENDIX 

The  illustrations  of  friendly  visiting  in  the  preceding 
pages  have  been  given  with  a  view  to  elucidating  some 
particular  part  of  visiting  work.  Some  of  the  follow- 
ing instances  show  the  possibiHties  and  discourage- 
ments of  continuous  visiting,  and  the  last  illustration 
emphasizes  an  important  fact  in  the  life  of  poor 
neighborhoods  ;  namely,  the  unconscious  but  restrain- 
ing and  uphfting  influence  of  good  neighbors.  On 
this  same  phase  of  the  subject,  see  Charles  Booth's 
"  Life  and  Labor  of  the  People,"  Vol.  I,  p.  159. 

Home  Libraries  and  the  Visitor.  —  A  visitor  reports 
that  "a  library  has  been  established  in  the  room  of 

Mrs.  ,  where  the  boys  of  the  tenement  house 

meet  every  Saturday  afternoon  to  receive  or  exchange 
their  books,  discuss  with  the  visitor  the  books  they 
have  read,  listen  to  stories  as  they  are  read  or  nar- 
rated, and  to  play  games.  This  httle  gathering  seems 
to  have  improved  the  moral  and  social  atmosphere  of 
the  entire  tenement  house." 

The  woman  who  has  charge  of  the  library  first  be- 
came known  to  this  same  visitor  over  four  years  ago, 
197 


198     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

when  she  was  struggling  upon  the  verge  of  starvation, 
and  ahnost  giving  up  in  despair  from  the  effort,  to 
support  herself  and  her  two  children.  Through  the 
efforts  of  the  visitor  she  is  now  comfortable  and  prac- 
tically self-supporting.  She  has  been  made  librarian 
for  the  tenement  house  by  the  visitor,  and  is  proud  of 
the  distinction.  The  following  are  the  exact  words 
of  the  visitor :  "  She  welcomes  the  children  into  her 
room,  made  scrupulously  clean  and  attractive ;  and  as 
she  sits  at  her  work  and  Hstens  to  their  games  and 
readings,  in  which  she  frequently  participates,  her 
depressed  spirits  rise,  and  she  seems  to  gain  courage, 
and  to  feel  that  there  is  after  all  something  bright  in 
her  hfe."  —  Sixteenth  Report  of  Cincinnati  Associated 
Charities,  p.  13. 

After  Five  Years. — The  C.  family — father,  mother, 
and  eight  children  —  were  in  a  very  depressed  con- 
dition when  I  first  made  their  acquaintance,  five  years 
ago.  The  father,  who  was  a  consumptive,  had  lost 
his  position  of  traveUing  postman;  the  mother  was 
ill ;  and  the  only  source  of  income  was  a  monthly 
pension  of  ^8.00  and  about  $8.00  a  week  earned  by 
the  three  eldest  girls,  who  were  saleswomen.  The  rent 
was  ;^i5.oo  a  month,  and  the  family  heavily  in  debt.  I 
succeeded  in  finding  them  a  house  for  ^9.00  a  month, 
and  found  assistance  in  flour,  coal,  and  clothing.  An 
unknown  friend  undertook  to  add  ;^i.oo  a  month  to 


APPENDIX  199 

Mr.  C.'s  pension,  and  this  paid  the  rent.  Twice, 
when  the  girls  were  ill,  the  Golden  Book  Fund  came 
to  the  rescue  and  made  up  the  temporary  deficiency. 
I  tried  to  represent  to  them  the  dignity  of  keeping  a 
roof  over  their  heads  by  their  own  efforts.  First,  it 
became  possible  to  dispense  with  the  monthly  gift  of 
;?i.oo.  Later,  when  the  girls'  wages  were  raised, 
Mrs.  C.  told  me  I  need  not  provide  fuel,  —  they  would 
now  try  to  do  that  themselves.  One  summer,  whilst  I 
was  away,  the  youngest  child  died,  and  the  funeral 
expenses  were  paid  by  the  family,  through  much  self- 
denial.  Every  year  the  girls  have  been  sent  to  their 
friends  in  the  country  by  the  Fresh  Air  Fund  of  the 
Y.W.C.A.,  and  once  the  younger  children  were  sent 
to  the  Children's  Country  Home.  The  parents  con- 
tinued in  wretched  health;  but  as  the  girls'  wages 
gradually  increased,  I  was  asked  by  Mrs.  C.  not  to 
provide  further  aid,  except  in  case  of  sickness.  In 
1 89 1,  Mr.  C.'s  pension  was  more  than  doubled,  but 
they  continued  in  their  poor  and  unattractive  neigh- 
borhood until  every  debt  was  paid,  not  forgetting  the 
doctor.  Last  summer  they  moved  into  a  larger  house 
on  a  pleasant  street,  and  have  enough  lodgers  to  pay 
more  than  half  the  rent.  Mr.  C.'s  health  has  im- 
proved, and  he  has  a  light  position  at  ;?25.oo  a  month 
and  his  meals.  The  oldest  girl  has  married  well,  the 
two  other  girls  are  good  workers,  and  my  old  friends 
are  now  well  on  their  feet.     During  absence  we  have 


200     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

corresponded  regularly.  Mrs.  C.  has  learned  to  come 
to  me  in  every  difficulty,  and  knows  how  gladly  I 
share  her  encouragements.  —  "  Charities  Record," 
Baltimore,  Vol.  I,  No.  i. 

Persevering  under  Difficulties,  —  We  are  each  year 
more  strongly  impressed  with  the  importance  and 
value  of  patient  and  careful  visiting,  even  in  the  face 
of  great  discouragement,  beheving  that  sincere  and 
judicious  friendhness  is  invariably  helpful,  although  it 
may  be  long  before  any  apparent  result  is  produced. 
Proofs  of  this  are  constantly  coming  to  us,  as  in  a 
German  family  which  has  been  for  the  last  six  years 
under  the  care  of  one  of  our  visitors.  The  family 
consists  of  father,  mother,  and  five  children,  and, 
when  first  visited,  they  were  found  almost  destitute, 
—  the  woman  earning  a  httle  by  picking  berries  in 
the  summer  and  selling  them,  and  the  man  by  picking 
coal,  —  though  they  were  well  able  to  work.  The 
visitor  was  received  very  ungraciously  at  first,  and  it 
was  only  after  finding  some  work  for  the  man,  and 
showing  a  real  interest  in  the  children,  that  she  gained 
any  hold  upon  them.  No  really  marked  improvement 
took  place  until  the  children  went  to  the  Industrial 
School.  Then  the  girls  taught  their  mother  how  her 
work  should  be  done,  and  it  was  with  great  pride  that 
they  showed  the  visitor  how  neat  they  had  made  their 
rooms.     Work  was  obtained  for  the  man  as  night- 


APPENDIX  20I 

watchman  at  ;?  12.00  a  week,  and,  after  a  while,  he  was 
able  to  pay  off  all  his  back  debts.  He  is  now  always 
glad  to  see  the  visitor.  Three  of  the  girls  are  at  work, 
and  they  seem  a  happy  and  prosperous  family. — 
Tenth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  55. 

Widow  with  Children.  —  A  typical  case  of  chronic 
dependence  is  that  of  a  widow  with  six  children. 
When  she  was  referred  to  us,  nearly  four  years  ago, 
her  children  were  very  young,  and  she,  though  well- 
meaning,  was  stupid  and  inefficient.  The  problem 
was  not  whether  aid  should  be  given,  —  that  was 
clearly  necessary,  for  the  woman  could  not  earn  any- 
thing with  her  little  children  to  care  for,  —  but  if  the 
aid  could  be  given  in  such  a  way  as  to  really  benefit 
them.  ReHef  was  procured  from  the  proper  sources, — 
^20.00  a  quarter  from  the  "  Shaw  Fund  for  Mariners* 
Children,"  ;^2.oo  a  month  in  groceries  from  the  city, 
and  at  times  ^i.oo  a  week  from  the  St.  Vincent  de  Paul 
Society.  The  visitor  who  first  interested  himself  in 
the  family,  and  who  has  been  their  friend  and  counsel- 
lor ever  since,  received  the  quarterly  ;^ 20.00  for  them, 
paid  the  rent  with  $13.00  of  it,  and  gave  the  rest  to  the 
woman,  who  knew  just  what  she  had  to  depend  upon, 
and  learned  to  use  it  properly.  As  the  children  grew 
older,  the  boy  went  into  a  district  telegraph  office; 
and  the  girl,  wishing  to  go  into  a  store,  asked  the 
visitor  to  find  her  a  place.     He  thought,  however. 


202      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

that  it  was  wiser  to  teach  her  how  to  find  one,  and, 
after  suggesting  some  good  estabhshments  to  which 
to  apply,  told  her  to  get  references  from  her  school- 
teacher and  others,  and  go  herself  to  ask  for  work. 
This  she  did  with  some  difficulty,  and  got  a  place ; 
and  when,  after  a  time,  she  gave  it  up,  she  knew  what 
to  do,  and  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  another.  The 
boy  refused  to  be  apprenticed  to  a  joiner,  as  the 
visitor  wished,  but  is  working  hard  in  a  place  he 
found  himself.  The  second  boy  goes  to  school,  and 
sells  papers.  In  summer,  the  visitor,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Conference,  has  sent  the  younger  children  into 
the  country  to  board  for  a  month.  He  has  taken 
pains  to  have  the  family  live  in  a  healthy  tenement, 
and  in  many  ways  has  insured  their  well-being.  They 
are  now  partially  self-supporting ;  and  the  older  chil- 
dren are  respectable  and  industrious,  which  we  feel 
is  greatly  due  to  the  influence  that  the  visitor  has 
exerted  over  them  and  their  mother  for  four  years.  — 
Fourth  Report  of  Boston  Associated  Charities,  p.  40. 

A  Failure.  —  Gamma  made  his  first  application  to 
the  Charity  Organization  Society  seven  years  ago,  at  a 
time  when  it  was  even  more  difficult  than  now  to  find 
volunteer  visitors  who  were  intelligent  and  faithful 
enough  to  make  a  careful  study  of  the  needs  of  famiUes 
placed  under  their  charge,  or  courageous  enough  to 
carry  out  any  thorough  plan  of  treatment  in  these 


APPENDIX  203 

families.  The  man  was  a  German  cobbler  who  had 
married  an  American  domestic,  and  at  that  time  there 
were  three  children,  one  of  them  an  imbecile  with 
destructive  tendencies.  The  man  said  he  was  dis- 
couraged, that  he  got  work  with  difficulty  and  had  no 
tools  with  which  to  do  it.  Materials  were  furnished 
and  members  of  the  Society  found  work  for  him,  but, 
this  form  of  assistance  not  being  very  much  to  his 
mind,  they  soon  lost  sight  of  him,  and  it  was  not  till 
several  years  later  that  the  Society  again  encountered 
the  family  in  a  different  part  of  the  city,  and  a  friendly 
visitor  was  secured  to  study  their  condition  and  try 
and  improve  it. 

The  visitor  reported  that  the  man  was  "discour- 
aged," the  house  filthy  beyond  description,  and  that 
the  life  of  the  fourth  child,  then  nine  months  old,  was 
endangered  by  the  imbecile  boy,  who  was  violent  at 
times.  Aid  was  given,  and,  the  man's  own  theory 
being  that  he  could  do  better  in  another  neighbor- 
hood, the  family  was  moved  and  otherwise  aided  by 
money  secured  from  benevolent  individuals.  It  soon 
became  apparent  that  the  man  lacked  energy.  He 
was  given  to  pious  phrases,  and  was  a  good  talker,  but 
all  efforts  to  inculcate  industry  or  cleanliness  were  met 
both  by  man  and  wife  with  the  excuse  that  the  imbe- 
cile boy  interfered  with  all  their  efforts. 

At  the  family's  own  solicitation,  the  Society  tried  to 
find  a  home  for  the  boy ;  after  months  of  negotiations 


204     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

he  was  placed  in  the  School  for  Feeble-minded  at 
Owing's  Mills.  This  burden  removed,  the  visitor 
redoubled  her  efforts  to  make  the  home  a  decent  one 
for  the  remaining  children,  but  without  success.  The 
beds  were  not  made  until  they  were  to  be  slept  in,  the 
dishes  not  washed  until  they  must  be  used  again,  and 
soiled  clothing  was  allowed  to  stand  in  soak  a  week  at 
a  time  in  hot  weather,  until  a  heavy  scum  gathered  on 
the  top  and  the  air  was  poisoned  by  the  stench.  The 
remaining  children  were  unkempt  and  untrained,  and 
the  woman  quite  indifferent  about  their  condition. 
The  imbecile  had  improved  at  Owing's  Mills,  but, 
owing  to  a  half- expressed  wish  of  the  mother's  to  see 
the  boy.  Gamma  brought  him  home  and  refused  to 
take  him  back  again.  The  man's  good  intentions 
always  seemed  to  evaporate  in  fine  phrases.  He  was 
reported  by  the  neighbors  to  be  drinking,  though  not 
heavily,  and  one  morning  the  visitor  received  a  letter 
from  him  saying  that  she  must  take  care  of  his  family 
—  he  could  stand  it  no  longer  and  had  left  them. 

One  thing  greatly  handicapped  the  visitor  at  this 
time  and  later :  the  squalor  of  this  family  strongly 
appealed  to  chance  charitable  visitors,  who  helped 
them  liberally  because  they  looked  miserable — helped 
them  without  knowledge  and  without  plan.  It  used  to 
be  said  that  every  American  thinks  he  can  make  an 
after-dinner  speech,  and  it  might  have  been  added 
that  every  American,  or  nearly  every  American,  thinks 


APPENDIX  205 

he  can  administer  his  own  charities  judiciously.  When 
we  are  mistaken  in  our  speech-making  ability,  we  our- 
selves are  the  sufferers,  but  the  saddest  thing  about 
our  charitable  blunders  is  that  not  we  but  the  poor 
people  are  the  sufferers.  The  friendly  visitor  to  the 
Gammas  was  a  woman  of  unusual  intelligence  and 
devotion.  Her  failure  may  be  traced  to  two  causes  : 
to  the  fact  that  she  was  not  called  in  earlier,  and  to 
the  willingness  of  many  good  church  people  to  help 
quite  indiscriminately  for  the  asking.  They  went  and 
looked  at  the  home,  saw  that  it  was  wretched  indeed, 
and  called  this  "  an  investigation."  "  Yes,  I've  helped 
the  Gammas,"  they  used  to  say.  "  I've  investigated 
their  condition  myself."  The  way  in  which  Gamma 
was  in  the  habit  of  talking  about  the  Bible  as  his  best 
friend  made  a  great  impression  on  them. 

The  man's  desertion  of  his  family  was  a  mere  ruse. 
He  was  soon  back  again,  and  ready  to  profit  by  the 
help  they  had  obtained.  Moving  from  place  to  place 
to  avoid  rent,  they  were  at  last  ejected,  and  the  man, 
wife,  and  children,  including  the  imbecile,  found  refuge 
in  the  stable  of  a  kind-hearted  man  who  took  pity  on 
them.  The  owner  was  alarmed,  however,  when  he 
found  the  family  making  no  effort  to  find  other  quar- 
ters, and  fearing  the  imbecile  might  set  fire  to  the 
place  at  any  time,  he  applied  to  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society  to  know  what  could  be  done.  We  offered 
the  woman  and  children  shelter  at  the  Electric  Sewing 


2o6      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

Machine  Rooms,  until  the  boy  could  be  sent  back  to 
Owing's  Mills  and  the  other  children  committed  to  the 
Henry  Watson  Children's  Aid  Society,  and  advised 
that  the  man  saw  wood  at  the  Friendly  Inn  until  he 
could  get  work.  The  man  refused  to  go,  but  the 
woman  and  children  came  to  the  Electric  Rooms, 
and  with  the  cooperation  of  the  Society  for  the  Pro- 
tection of  Children,  the  imbecile  was  returned  to 
Owing's  Mills. 

At  this  juncture  the  daily  papers  interfered  with  our 
plans  for  the  children  by  publishing  a  sensational 
account  of  Gamma  as  a  most  industrious  shoemaker, 
who  had  always  supported  his  family  until  the  hard 
times  of  the  last  year  had  thrown  him  out  of  work. 
Money  was  sent  to  the  papers  for  the  family.  Gamma, 
who  had  consented  to  have  two  of  the  children  placed 
in  good  country  homes  by  the  Henry  Watson  Aid 
Society,  changed  his  mind,  and  the  old  story  of  in- 
discriminate charity  and  indiscriminate  filth  and  neglect 
began  all  over  again.  The  gentleman  who  had  given 
them  shelter  thought  they  ought  to  have  another  trial. 
They  had  had  six  years'  trial  already,  but  this  last  one 
was  of  short  duration.  In  four  months  their  champion 
returned  to  say  that  the  Charity  Organization  Society 
was  right  and  he  was  wrong;  that  he  had  found  Gamma 
drunken,  lazy,  and  insolent;  and  that  the  children 
raised  under  his  influence  must  become  paupers  and 
criminals.     Again  the  family  were  ejected,  and  this 


APPENDIX  207 

time,  before  public  sympathy  could  interfere,  the  two 
older  children  were  committed  to  the  Henry  Watson 
Aid  Society,  and  only  the  baby  left  with  Mrs.  Gamma. 
Our  advice  to  Mrs.  Gamma  was  to  return  to  her 
mother,  who  offered  her  a  home.  But  the  advice  was 
not  taken.  EstabUshed  in  another  part  of  Baltimore, 
Gamma  renewed  his  attack  on  the  clergy,  and  told 
one  minister  that  he  was  a  hardened  criminal  who 
had  served  a  term  in  the  Penitentiary,  but,  after 
hearing  one  of  his  sermons,  he  desired  earnestly  to 
reform.  The  latest  news  about  the  Gammas  is  a  bit 
of  information  in  which  the  charitable  public  will 
have  to  take  an  interest,  however  reluctantly,  before 
very  long,  —  there  is  a  new  baby. —  "  Charities  Record," 
Baltimore,  Vol.  II,  No.  8. 

A  Success.  —  The  second  family  consisted  of  a 
respectable,  middle-aged  woman  who  had  been  twice 
married,  four  children  of  the  first  marriage,  and  the 
second  husband.  The  eldest  daughter  had  married, 
and  with  her  husband  occupied  part  of  the  house  in 
which  her  mother  lived.  The  other  three  children 
were  young.  The  second  husband  was  a  drunken 
fellow,  who  did  little  for  his  wife's  support  and  abused 
her  badly.  She  had  been  to  the  hospital  to  have  a 
serious  operation  performed ;  and,  although  the  oper- 
ation had  been  successful,  her  health  was  still  poor. 
When  first  known  by  the  Conference  the  family  were 


2o8      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

in  great  destitution.  The  husband  brought  home  very 
little,  the  wife  could  not  work,  and  one  of  the  chil- 
dren earned  a  mere  trifle.  The  rent  was  unpaid,  and 
almost  the  only  food  the  family  had  was  oatmeal. 
The  married  daughter  and  her  husband  said  the 
family  had  been  long  enough  quartered  on  them,  and 
refused  to  help  them  any  more.  The  only  work  the 
woman  thought  she  could  do  was  sewing,  and  some 
of  this  was  found  for  her.  Diet  Kitchen  order  was 
obtained  for  one  of  the  children  who  was  ill,  and 
shoes  were  given  to  the  others.  Later,  the  Provident 
Association  gave  groceries.  At  this  time  the  first 
visitor  left  the  city,  and  a  new  one  took  charge  of  the 
family.  She  writes :  "  On  first  calling  on  Mrs.  X., 
I  found  a  tidy,  respectable-looking  woman,  apparently 
in  delicate  health.  Her  face  was  almost  that  of  a 
lady,  and  her  manners  were  polite;  but  she  did  not 
make  me  very  welcome.  She  spoke  with  affection  of 
her  former  visitor,  who,  she  said,  had  been  very  kind ; 
but  she  presently  remarked  that  she  could  not  see 
why  *all  these  other  people'  had  come  prying  into 
her  affairs."  On  inquiry  it  was  learned  that  after  the 
former  visitor  had  left  town  representatives  of  several 
charitable  societies  had  called,  and  that  one  had  hurt 
the  woman's  feeHngs  by  asking  all  kinds  of  questions 
without  giving  any  explanation  of  his  so  doing.  The 
visitor  explained  that  she  knew  the  former  visitor, 
and  had  been  asked  to  call  in  her  place ;  and,  after 


APPENDIX  209 

some  sympathetic  explanation,  the  woman  seemed  a 
little  cheered.  However,  she  resented  the  grocery 
orders  she  was  receiving,  saying  that  she  did  not  wish 
charity — that  she  was  wiUing  to  earn  her  living  by 
sewing.  "Why  could  she  not  have  that  instead  of 
grocery  orders?"  As  to  sewing  for  the  shops,  she 
said  she  could  not  do  that;  for  shop-work  was  too 
low  paid,  and  she  could  not  work  on  the  machine. 
Plain  hand-sewing  was  the  only  thing  she  could  do. 
When  told  that  certain  sewing  to  which  she  referred 
was  charity  sewing,  and  was  only  given  out  in  winter, 
she  exclaimed,  "  Then  it  is  not  work  at  all,  but 
charity,  just  like  the  grocery  orders."  When  the  visi- 
tor said  good-by,  she  was  invited  to  call  again.  She 
did  so  repeatedly,  seeing  the  family  once  a  week  or 
oftener.  On  account  of  the  drunken  husband,  some 
question  was  raised  as  to  whether  the  groceries  should 
be  given  regularly,  but  Mrs.  X.  stated  that  her  hus- 
band never  shared  the  food.  He  was  away  from 
home  most  of  the  time.  Sometimes  he  would  come 
home  Saturday  night  and  bring  some  money,  and 
then  he  would  take  his  meals  at  home ;  but,  when  the 
money  was  gone,  he  would  go  out  for  his  meals,  never 
asking  how  his  wife  and  children  fared  in  his  absence. 
It  did  not  appear  that  his  disregard  was  due  to  his 
thinking  that  others  would  care  for  the  family.  The 
wife  insisted  that  he  did  not  think  or  care  how  they 
fared.     He  had  sometimes  left  her  for  weeks,  when 


2IO     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

she  was  ill  in  bed,  and  had  never  asked  or  known 
how  she  had  been  kept  alive.  He  appeared  to  be 
so  utterly  irresponsible  that  he  could  not  be  made 
more  so. 

At  the  visitor's  suggestion,  it  was  soon  decided  that 
the  younger  daughter  should  take  a  place  at  service, 
where  she  could  earn  something  and  yet  go  home 
every  night.  Such  a  place  the  visitor  found  for  her, 
and  the  girl  was  eager  to  save  money  to  buy  herself 
a  coat  for  the  following  winter.  The  needs  of  the 
family,  however,  made  it  necessary  to  take  the  earn- 
ings for  living  expenses ;  but  the  visitor  promised  that 
somehow  a  coat  for  the  winter  should  be  forthcoming. 
When  the  employer  closed  her  house  in  July,  the 
visitor  found  a  situation  for  the  girl  for  the  summer 
in  one  of  the  country  towns.  Of  this  time  the  visitor 
writes :  "  All  the  time  I  felt  that  the  family  were 
suffering  more  than  was  right.  The  children  were 
fatherless  and  with  a  sick  mother,  and  Httle  A.  was 
constantly  ill,  first  one  thing  and  then  another,  the 
doctors  saying  that  he  was  under-nourished.  Mrs.  X. 
did  jobs  of  washing  and  scrubbing  as  she  could  get 
them  or  was  able,  and  the  two  children  of  thirteen 
both  worked.  So  a  benevolent  person  consented  to 
take  entire  charge  of  the  family,  giving  just  what  I 
should  think  proper.  Accordingly,  from  that  date  to 
October  lo  an  average  of  ^2.65  a  week  was  given, 
besides  ^13.00  for  clothes  and  other  things.     Also, 


APPENDIX  211 

Mrs.  X.  and  the  two  boys  were  sent  to  the  country 
for  one  week.  Notwithstanding  this,  Mrs.  X.  felt  the 
summer  a  hard  one.  She  was  not  a  brisk  or  cheerful 
woman.  She  had  suffered  a  great  deal  from  the  heat, 
and  A.  had  diphtheria  and  other  illnesses."  In  the 
fall  it  was  arranged  that  the  girl  should  again  go  to 
school ;  and  the  married  sister  finally  offered,  in  order 
to  make  this  possible,  to  board  her  and  provide  her 
with  boots  until  Christmas.  The  Provident  Associa- 
tion, after  considering  the  case  carefully,  offered  to 
give  $2.00  a  week  and  coal  and  clothing.  The  friend 
who  had  been  giving  all  the  help  stood  ready  to  give 
if  more  than  this  was  needed.  Two  months  later 
Mrs.  X.  had  her  husband  arrested,  and  sent  to  the 
Island  for  a  month. 

In  the  winter  Mrs.  X.  consulted  her  visitor  as  to 
the  possibihty  of  her  giving  up  the  Provident  help 
and  supporting  herself  by  taking  boarders.  "  She  had 
friends  all  ready  to  come,  and  could  arrange  to  hire 
additional  rooms.  All  she  needed  was  extra  bedding. 
She  felt  confident  of  success.  Her  health  was  better 
than  it  had  been  for  a  long  time,  and  she  was  im- 
proved in  energy  and  courage.  By  dint  of  great  per- 
suasion, the  Provident  consented  to  give  the  bedding. 
They  also  promised  to  continue  giving  coal ;  but  the 
other  help,  it  was  arranged,  should  stop.  They  had 
little  hope,  however,  that  the  experiment  would  suc- 
ceed.    But  the  experiment  did  succeed,  and  better 


212      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE   POOR 

than  I  had  anticipated.  Mrs.  X.  proved  a  good 
manager.  She  made  a  comfortable  home,  clothed 
the  children,  and  provided  many  little  comforts  of 
which  they  had  long  been  deprived.  She  became 
cheerful  and  hopeful  for  the  future.  She  seemed  like 
a  different  person  from  the  sick,  discouraged  woman 
I  had  known  nine  months  before. 

"When  her  husband  came  home  from  the  Island, 
I  feared  he  might  disturb  this  prosperity,  for  he  acted 
worse  than  ever ;  but  in  January  he  attacked  her  with 
a  knife,  so  she  had  him  again  arrested,  and  sent  to 
the  Island  for  four  months.  She  then  told  me  she 
wished  to  take  steps  for  a  separation.  I  encouraged 
her  in  this  decision,  but  was  careful  not  to  urge  her, 
for  I  felt  that  such  a  step  to  be  successful  must  be 
taken  by  her  own  desire. 

"So,  as  spring  approached,  I  hoped  that  better 
days  had  really  come  for  this  family.  Unfortunately, 
however,  in  March  a  sad  accident  brought  this  pros- 
perous state  of  things  to  a  sudden  end.  On  the 
morning  of  March  lo,  N.  brought  me  word  that  his 
mother  had  fallen  downstairs  and  broken  her  arm, 
and  asked  me  to  call  as  soon  as  possible.  I  found 
the  poor  woman  in  bed,  with  her  right  wrist  broken, 
and  her  face  and  body  badly  bruised.  She  was  in 
great  pain,  and  so  discouraged  that  it  was  pitiful. 
Her  boarders  had  gone,  and  she  found  herself  once 
more  dependent  on  charity;   but  I  felt  I  could  say 


APPENDIX  213 

from  a  full  heart  that  the  help  she  now  needed  would 
not  be  grudged  to  her.  For,  surely,  no  one  could  help 
respecting  her  endeavor  for  self-support  or  could 
regard  her  effort  as  a  failure  ;  and,  when  her  accident 
reduced  her  once  more  to  dependence,  her  rent  was 
paid  for  the  rest  of  the  month,  she  had  a  bag  of  flour 
and  other  groceries  in  the  house,  and  ;^8.oo  in  money 
with  which  to  pay  the  doctor  for  setting  her  wrist." 
The  visitor  adds :  "  I  think  that  during  this  year's 
visiting  Mrs.  X.  had  really  learned  to  regard  me  as  a 
friend.  At  first  I  do  not  think  she  liked  me  very 
well,  and  I  also  found  it  hard  cordially  to  like  her. 
We  were  not  naturally  sympathetic.  I  am  afraid  that 
she  often  thought  me  hard ;  and  she  had  a  dreary, 
complaining  way  that  tried  me  a  great  deal.  But  her 
good  qualities  commanded  my  respect  and  her  mis- 
fortunes my  pity ;  and  on  her  my  evident  desire  to 
befriend  her  gradually  had  its  effect.  Her  first  ex- 
pression of  real  feeling  was  when  she  consulted  me 
about  her  plan  for  taking  boarders,  and  that  was  after 
nine  months  of  constant  visiting.  She  then  said  that 
I  was  the  only  friend  that  she  had  in  the  world ;  and 
later,  when  the  plan  was  in  successful  operation,  she 
told  me  that  she  attributed  all  her  prosperity  to  me, 
and  that  she  was  a  star  in  my  crown.  That  she  owed 
all  her  prosperity  to  me  was  of  course  an  exaggeration. 
I  could  not  have  helped  her  had  she  not  been  the 
essentially  decent  woman  she  was.     But,  at  the  same 


214      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

time,  it  was  true  that,  had  she  not  been  helped  and 
encouraged  when  her  destitution  was  so  great,  she 
would  probably  have  lacked  both  the  physical  and 
moral  strength,  as  well  as  the  opportunity  later,  to 
stand  upon  her  own  feet.  And,  when  her  bad  fortune 
again  overtook  her,  it  was  much  for  her  that  she  had 
a  friendly  visitor  to  turn  to.  She  felt  it  so  herself; 
and,  as  she  lay  moaning  with  pain,  she  sobbed  out 
that  I  was  the  only  comfort  she  had  on  earth." 

After  the  breaking  of  her  wrist,  Mrs.  X.  was  de- 
pendent for  a  long  time,  since  the  wrist  did  not  knit 
properly,  and  her  right  hand  was  almost  disabled.  It 
did  not  seem  as  if  she  could  ever  get  on  her  feet  again. 
But  after  a  time  she  wished  to  move  to  one  of  the 
country  towns  where  she  had  acquaintances.  The 
visitor  went  to  the  place  herself  to  examine  the  chances, 
and  decided  that  the  plan  was  worth  trying.  The  Provi- 
dent Association  gave  $10.00  for  moving  and  ;^  10.00 
more  for  a  start.  After  that  the  visitor  gave  a  little 
from  time  to  time ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  the  family 
were  self-supporting.  The  boy  worked  in  a  factory, 
the  girl  was  employed  by  a  neighbor,  and  the  mother 
raised  hens  and  vegetables.  At  last  accounts  the 
daughter  was  married.  Her  husband  is  of  good  char- 
acter and  prosperous.  Both  the  brothers  are  earning 
good  wages,  the  younger  one  having  grown  from  a 
sickly  child  to  a  strong  and  hearty  boy.  The  mother 
is  successful  with  her  poultry,  and  gets  high  prices  for 


APPENDIX  215 

the  eggs.  The  husband  comes  and  goes  as  formerly, 
contributing  nothing  to  the  family  income,  but  doing 
no  special  harm  to  any  but  himself.  Certainly,  the 
present  condition  of  the  family  is  a  very  happy  con- 
trast to  that  in  which  they  were  first  found  ;  and 
certainly,  also,  these  changed  conditions  are  in  no 
small  degree  due  to  the  earnest  and  devoted  efforts 
of  the  visitor.  —  Sixteenth  Report  of  Boston  Associated 
Charities,  pp.  45  sq. 

Unconscious  Influence  of  Good  Neighbors.  —  I  would 
venture  to  say  that  there  is  not  an  immoral  man  or 
woman  in  neighborhoods  known  as  disreputable,  how- 
ever completely  he  or  she  may  have  cast  off  self- 
restraint  and  regard  for  character,  who  has  not  daily 
examples  of  persons,  close  to  such  homes  and  haunts 
of  vice,  living  honest  and  morally  clean  lives,  and  who 
is  not,  to  a  degree  not  consciously  known,  restrained 
and  influenced  by  the  contact.  .  .  .  Space  will  not 
permit  many  instances  to  be  stated,  but,  as  illustrating 
what  I  am  wishful  to  make  clear,  I  give  two.  In  a 
court  behind  a  street  well  known  as  bearing  almost 
the  worst  character  in  Manchester  lives  a  man,  para- 
lyzed, unable  to  leave  an  old  sofa  which  has  been  his 
bed  for  months.  He  was  in  the  Royal  Infirmary,  and 
there  pronounced  incurable,  but  likely  to  live  years 
with  ordinary  care.  He  could  have  been  taken  to  the 
workhouse  hospital  at  Crumpsall,  where  he  would  have 


2l6      FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

had  careful  nursing  and  suitable  food.  He  has  no 
dread  of  the  workhouse  hospital,  and  would  gladly  go 
if  he  had  any  hope  of  cure.  He  speaks  most  grate- 
fully of  his  treatment  at  the  Royal  Infirmary.  But 
there  is  no  hope  of  cure,  and  his  wife  and  he  have 
determined  to  keep  together  while  he  lives,  and  he 
refuses  the  comforts  of  the  hospital,  and  she  refuses  to 
let  him  go  from  her.  She  has  made  her  home  in  this 
court,  working  in  the  room  in  which  he  lies,  with  only 
another  room  for  their  four  children.  She  earns  an 
average  of  5i-.  weekly;  her  eldest  boy  earns  at  a 
situation  5^.  more,  and  on  what  is  left  out  of  lOJ., 
after  paying  2s.  6d.  rent,  and  buying  coal  and  light,  the 
six  Hve.  (The  condition  of  things  is  now  improved  by 
the  guardians  deciding  to  take  two  of  the  children  into 
Swinton  Schools.)  This  is  a  simple  and  very  ordinary 
story.  But  what  is  the  effect  of  the  woman's  work? 
She  says  Uttle  to  her  neighbors.  Her  high  purpose 
and  her  complete  devotion  to  her  husband  and  children 
have  made  other  women  ashamed  of  sin,  and  made 
men  wish  themselves  worthy  of  women  like  her.  She 
has  no  thought  that  she  is  doing  anything  but  giving 
her  life  for  her  husband  and  children,  has  no  knowledge 
of  what  the  words  "  unconscious  influence  "  mean  — 
but  none  the  less  she  is  "a  light  shining  in  a  dark 
place." 

Another  illustration.     An  old  man,  for  forty  years  a 
laborer,  never  earning  more  than  a  weekly  wage  of 


APPENDIX  217 

20s.,  who  had  brought  up  three  sons  (now  decent 
working  men,  married,  with  famiUes),  became  unable 
to  work  longer,  and  is  allowed  5^-.  weekly  by  his  last 
employer ;  the  rent  is  paid  by  his  sons,  who  also  give 
an  occasional  shilUng  when  they  visit  him.  This  is  the 
whole  income  for  himself  and  his  wife.  Some  time 
ago  when  in  the  street  he  met  a  young  woman  whom 
he  recognized  as  the  daughter  of  a  man  who  used  to 
work  with  him.  He  saw  that  she  was  out  for  immoral 
purposes  and  spoke  to  her,  telling  her  how  sorry  he  was 
to  find  her  leading  such  a  Hfe.  As  she  appeared  sorry 
and  repentant,  he  took  her  home  to  his  wife  to  take 
care  of  her  until  he  could  see  her  father.  He  found 
that  the  father  had  moved  to  Bury,  having  left  his  work 
in  Manchester  from  shame  at  his  daughter's  disgrace. 
On  the  Sunday,  when  he  could  expect  to  find  the 
father  at  home,  the  old  man  walked  the  seven  miles  to 
Bury  and  found  his  former  mate,  but  could  not  prevail 
on  him  to  take  his  daughter  home.  In  fact,  the  father 
was  very  angry  at  being  asked,  and  refused  to  Hsten. 
The  old  man  walked  back  and  told  his  wife  that  the 
girl  must  stay  with  them  until  the  next  Sunday,  when 
he  would  try  again.  The  next  Sunday  the  old  man 
walked  to  Bury  and  saw  the  father,  who  was  somewhat 
softened,  but  still  refused  to  see  his  daughter.  A  walk 
home  again,  and  the  old  man  and  his  wife  settled  that 
the  girl  should  remain  with  them  for  another  try  to 
be  made,  and  on  the  next  Sunday  he  set  out  on  the 


2i8     FRIENDLY  VISITING  AMONG  THE  POOR 

road,  hopeful  to  succeed.  The  father  this  time  gave 
way,  and  on  the  following  Monday  the  daughter  went 
home,  and  has  since  lived  at  home  working  regularly. 
The  old  man  and  his  wife  don't  know  that  they  have 
done  anything  "out  of  common,"  or  anything  more 
than  ought  to  be  done,  "  for  a  poor  lass."  —  "  Drink 
and  Poverty,"  by  Councillor  Alexander  M'Dougall, 
pp.  7  sq. 


INDEX 


Accident,  damages  for,  23, 104. 
Addams,  Miss  Jane,  72. 
Adequate  relief,  157-159. 
Adulteration   of  food   supplies, 

"3- 

Advertising,  philanthropic,  148. 
American  Society  for  the  Exten- 
sion of  University  Teaching, 

137- 
Associated  charities.    See  Char- 
ity organization  societies. 

Babies,  care  of,  77-78. 

Bad  temper  as  a  cause  of  unem- 
ployment, 37. 

Barnato,  Barney,  10. 

Barnett,  Mrs.  Samuel,  134-135. 

Baths,  cheap,  96. 

Beale,  Miss  J.  F.,  130, 

Beggars,  25-27 ;  child,  88-89 1  and 
free  soup,  149. 

Beneficial  and  fraternal  societies, 
122-123 ;    as  a  source  of  relief, 

150. 

Birtwell,  Miss  M.  L.,  182. 

Boarding-out  dependent  chil- 
dren, 90. 

Books,  lending,  133. 

Booth,  Charles,  197. 

Bosanquet,  Mrs.  Bernard,  18,  29, 
48.  49. 

Boston  Symphony  Orchestra,  135. 

Breadwinner,  the,  as  head  of 
family,  17-19,  44-57 ;  as  citi- 
zen, 19-23;  as  employee,  28- 
41 ;  intemperate  habits  of,  57- 
21 


63;  woman  as,  72-74 ;  child  as, 

81-83. 
Brown,  Miss  Mary  Willcox,  120. 
Building  and  loan  associations, 

123. 
Burial  insurance,  no,  119-121. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  172. 

Catholic  versus  Protestant  atti- 
tude toward  the  poor,  174. 

Causes  of  poverty,  7-9 ;  intem- 
perance as  a  cause,  58;  sick- 
ness, 95-96. 

Character,  9. 

Charitable  agencies,  multiplica- 
tion of,  176-177. 

Charity  organization  societies,  13, 
31,  38,  55,  60,  62,  187,  189,  202. 

Chattel  mortgages,  115-118. 

Child  insurance,  122. 

Child  labor,  81-83,  in. 

Children,  of  immoral  parents,  49- 
51 ;  of  widows,  73-74,  158-159, 
201-202 ;  diet  of  small,  77 ;  as 
breadwinners,  81-83  *»  wayward 
and  dull,  83-85;  reading  of, 
86-87 ;  training  in  citizenship, 
87 ;  begging,  88-89 :  protection 
from  cruelty  and  immorality, 
89-90;  boarding-out,  placing- 
out,  and  institutional  care  of, 
90-91 ;  cleanliness  for,  99 ;  sick, 
loi ;  insuring,  122 ;  as  an  in- 
vestment, 122 ;  and  stamp  sav- 
ings, 123  ;  games  for,  130-131 ; 
and  relief,  146. 

9 


220 


INDEX 


Children's  aid  societies,  85- 
86. 

Children's  charities,  76-77. 

Church,  the,  and  municipal  re- 
form, 21;  and  relief,  160,  167- 
174;  and  poverty,  166-167; 
multiplying  relations  with,  168, 
169;  charities  of,  170-178;  com- 
petition in,  171-172;  as  a  natu- 
ral source  of  relief,  173-174; 
the  chief  source  of  the  charita- 
ble impulse,  175-176 ;  and  sec- 
ular agencies,  176-177. 

Church  workers,  who  ignore  the 
breadwinner,  18 ;  ignore  neigh- 
borhood ties,  25,  27 ;  ignore 
the  fundamental  conditions 
of  family  life,  44-45 ;  ignore 
the  claims  of  children  to  edu- 
cational advantages,  81 ;  allow 
children  to  be  sent  with  beg- 
ging messages,  88 ;  prefer  to 
administer  spiritual  consola- 
tion mixed  with  material  relief, 
144. 

Citizenship,  19-23,  87. 

City  Hfe  versus  country,  40,  82. 

Cleanliness,  household,  69-70 ; 
personal,  99. 

Clergymen,  difficulties  of,  in 
guiding  church  charities,  170- 
171 ;  training  of,  for  charitable 
work,  178. 

Collection  of  small  savings,  124. 

Commodities,  relief  in,  versus  re- 
lief in  cash,  161. 

Common  sense,  charitable  skill 
based  upon,  187. 

Compulsory  education,  80. 

Conditions,  reasonable,  in  grant- 
ing relief,  190. 

Confinement  cases,  48,  103. 

Consumptives,  change  of  climate 
for,  105-106. 

Contagious  diseases,  loz. 


Contentment  not  always  a  virtue, 
127-128. 

Convalescents,  104. 

Cooperation,  between  churches 
and  secular  charities,  176-177  ; 
of  the  visitor  with  school- 
teachers, 79-80 ;  with  Sunday- 
school  teachers,  87 ;  with  chil- 
dren's aid  society,  85;  with 
society  for  protection  of  chil- 
dren, 89-90;  with  board  of 
health,  96-101 ;  with  dispen- 
saries, loo-ioi ;  with  hospitals, 
101-103;  with  district  nurses, 
and  diet  kitchens,  103;  with 
educational  agencies,  137 ;  with 
relief  agencies,  164,  201-202; 
with  churches,  177-178 ;  with 
charity  organization  society, 
187-189 ;  with  others  charitably 
interested  in  family,  192. 

Correspondence  with  families, 
184-185,  199. 

Country  life  for  famiUes,  41,  82. 

Credit,  buying  on,  113;  better 
than  relief,  149. 

Damage  and  accident  cases,  23, 

104. 
Dampness,  97,  102,  no. 
Day  nurseries,  'j'j. 
De  Graffenreid,  Clare,  25. 
Deserted  wives,  48,  73-74. 
Deserters,  chronic,  48,  205. 
Dickens,  2. 

Diet,  67 ;  of  small  children,  tj. 
Diet  kitchens,  103. 
Dietaries,  scientific,  66-67. 
Discontent,  social  value  of,  127- 

128. 
Dispensaries,  loo-ioi. 
District  nurses,  103. 
District  visiting,  193-194. 
Doctoring,  relief  work  compared 

to,  154-155. 


INDEX 


221 


Dress  and  manners,  taste  in,  68. 
Duplication  of  relief,  165. 

Edgeworth,  Miss,  2. 

Education,  80-84,  92,  137-138. 

Educational  classes,  137. 

Eliot,  George,  2,  10,  34. 

Eliot,  Rev.  Samuel  A.,  105. 

Employees,  28-41. 

Employer,  as  source  of  relief,  150; 
caution  in  makmg  inquiries  of, 
189. 

Empioyment,  28-41 ;  fluctuating, 
35  ;  equalization  of,  35-36 ;  cau- 
tions in  finding,  40-41,  201- 
202;  facts  needed  in  finding, 
186-188. 

Exceptional  cases,  7. 

Exercise,  outdoor,  98-99,  132. 

Experience,  need  of,  in  relief 
work,  163-164. 

Facts,  necessary  in  relief,  156- 
157;  in  treatment,  186-188. 

Family,  the,  head  of,  17-19,  44- 
57;  essential  elements  of,  45- 
46 ;  breaking  up,  54-57 ;  over- 
visiting,  184;  brief  biography 
of  heads  of,  188. 

Family  budgets,  125. 

Financial  history  of  family,  facts 
in,  188. 

Fluctuating  work,  35. 

Food,  buying  and  preparing,  65- 
67  ;  adulteration  of,  1 13. 

Forms  of  relief,  160-162. 

Fraternal  societies,  122-123 1  ^s  a 
source  of  relief,  150. 

Fresh  air  charities,  78-79. 

Fresh  air,  prejudice  against,  97- 
98. 

Friendly  visiting,  and  social  ser- 
vice, 5 ;  need  of,  13 ;  introduc- 
tion to,  13;  qualifications  for, 
14;    and  economic  problems, 


29 ;  and  employment,  36-41 ; 
men  and  women  in,  41-43; 
and  household  economy,  65- 
69 ;  and  school-teachers,  79 ; 
and  home  libraries,  87;  and 
the  children,  91-93  ;  and  sani- 
tation, 97-101;  and  sickness, 
101-106;  and  thrift,  iii;  and 
savings,  124 ;  and  chattel  mort- 
gages, 116;  and  recreations, 
129 ;  and  relief,  142-145,  183 ; 
and  relief  agencies,  164-165; 
and  churches,  177-178;  what 
it  is  not,  180;  results  of,  181; 
principles  of,  182-195  '<  patience 
in,  182-183;  number  of  fami- 
lies in,  182;  by  correspond- 
ence, 184-185;  mutual  rela- 
tions in,  185;  and  charity 
organization  societies,  187- 
189;  and  others  charitably 
interested,  192;  best  done 
alone,  193 ;  distinguished  from 
district  visiting,  193-194 ;  illus- 
trations   of    continuous,    197- 

215. 
Fuel,  68-69 ;  saving  for,  124. 
Funerals,  119-121. 

Games,  130-131. 
Godkin,  E.  L.,  21. 
Gymnasiums,  132. 

Health,  95-106;  saving  at  ex- 
pense of,  no. 

Hill,  Miss  Octavia,  35,  128,  181. 

Home,  the,  the  unit  of  society,  44 ; 
relief  should  be  given  in,  145- 
146. 

Home  libraries,  86-87,  197-198. 

Hospital  care,  loi ;  prejudice 
against,  101-103. 

Howells,  W.  D.,  70. 

Humor,  sense  of,  necessary  in 
charity,  129. 


222 


INDEX 


Ignorance  of  English  as  a  cause 
of  unemployment,  39. 

Imposture,  168-170. 

Improvident  poor,  112. 

Inadequate  relief,  157-159,  173. 

Incapacity  as  a  cause  of  unem- 
ployment, 34. 

Incurables,  104-105. 

Indiscriminate  giving,  4,  6;  by 
the  poor,  25-27;  weakens 
neighborhood  ties,  27 ;  weak- 
ens family  ties,  45-47 ;  to  chil- 
dren, 88-89;  ntiateriahsm  of, 
141 ;  results  of,  157,  204-205. 

Individual  service,  and  social 
service,  5-6 ;  dangers  of,  7. 

Industrial  insurance,  120-121. 

Influence,  power  of  personal,  92- 
93;  patience  in  gaining,  182- 
183;  of  good  neighbors,  197, 
215-218. 

Instalment  purchases,  24, 113-115. 

Institutional  care,  162;  of  chil- 
dren, 90-91 ;  for  chronic  cases, 
191. 

Insurance,  industrial,  120-121. 

Intemperance,  7,  48-49,  54,  57- 
63 ;  recreations  as  a  cure  of, 
132-133. 

Interference  with  individual 
rights,  12. 

Interim  relief,  154. 

Invalids,  chronic,  103-104;  mi- 
gration of,  105-106. 

Investigation,  155-157,  186-189; 
caution  concerning  inquiries  of 
landlords  and  employers,  189. 

Jewett,  Sarah  Orne,  3. 
Juvenile  offenders,  85,  88-89. 

Kelley,  Mrs.  Florence,  82. 
Kindergartens,  79 ;  first  supported 

by  churches,  175-176. 
Krohn,  Professor  William  O.,  83. 


Landlords  who  sub-let,  24;  as 
creditors,  162 ;  caution  concern- 
ing inquiries  of,  189. 

Laws  for  protection  of  children, 

91. 

Lectures,  free,  137. 

Legal  extortions,  23. 

Libraries,  free,  133. 

Loan  companies,  115-118;  phil- 
anthropic, 117;  building  and, 
123. 

Loan  exhibitions,  133-135. 

Loans,  i6i. 

Loch,  C.  S.,  125. 

Lowell,  Mrs,  Josephine  Shaw, 
54.  73.  "8,  157-159. 

Man  of  the  family,  often  over- 
looked, 17;  should  apply  for 
relief,  145. 

Manual  training,  92. 

Married  vagabonds,  47-57,  93, 
146,  158,  164,  202-215. 

Mason,  Miss,  90. 

Materialism    of    the   charitable, 

141.  171. 
Medical  service,  cheap  grade  of, 

100. 
Men  as  friendly  visitors,  41. 
Migration  of  invalids,  105. 
Money,  relief  in,  161. 
Mothers'  meetings,  74-75. 
Municipal  reform,  6,  21. 
Music,  135-137. 

Negro  prejudice  against  hospi- 
tals, 102-103. 

Neighborhood  standard,  and  re- 
lief-giving, 163-164 ;  and  plans 
for  permanent  improvement, 
191. 

Neighbors,  24-25,  27 ;  as  a  source 
of  relief,  150 ;  effects  of  relief 
upon,  163,  190;  influence  of 
good,  215-218. 


INDEX 


223 


Newspaper  appeals  for  individual 
cases  of  need,  147,  206. 

Non-support  laws,  53. 

Novels,  poverty  in,  2;  sociologi- 
cal, 3. 

Odd  jobs,  36. 

Open  spaces,  96. 

Outdoor  relief,  public,  151-152. 

Outings,  78-79,  131. 

Over-visited  families,  184. 

Parasites,  11. 

Partnership,  with  the  poor  in 
relief,  159;  in  plans  for  their 
welfare,  190. 

Patent  medicines,  100,  no. 

Patronage,  10,  75. 

Pauper  burial,  118-119. 

Pauperism  not  poverty,  11. 

Pawning,  118, 

Peabody,  Professor  F.  G.,  127. 

Peabody,  George,  135. 

Pensions,  for  widows  with  chil- 
dren, 74 ;  continued  after  need 
has  ceased,  155 ;  to  supplement 
natural  resources,  162. 

Physical  defects  as  a  cause  of 
unemployment,  38 ;  as  a  cause 
of  juvenile    delinquency,    83- 

85- 
Physical  history  of  family,  facts 

in,  187. 
Pickton,  Miss,  173. 
Pictures,  lending,  133-135. 
Placing-out  dependent  children, 

90. 
Plans  for  relief,  154-157 ;  changed 

with  changing  conditions,  155 ; 

based  on  facts,    155-156;    for 

permanent  improvement,  189- 

192. 
Pleasures  the  measure  of  a  man, 

129. 
Pledges,  temperance,  61. 


Policemen  as  distributors  of  re- 
lief, 19. 

Political  corruption,  21-23;  ^"d 
public  relief,  151. 

Poor,  the,  not  a  social  class,  10- 
12;  charity  of,  25-27;  treated 
as  dependent  animals,  125 ; 
partnership  with,  in  plans  of 
relief,  159-160. 

Poverty,  phases  in  our  treatment 
of,  5 ;  cure  of,  29 ;  problems  of 
not  so  simple  as  they  seem, 
140. 

Principles  of  relief-giving,  145- 
162. 

Probation  system  for  juvenile 
offenders,  85-86. 

Protection  of  children  from  cru- 
elty and  immorality,  89-90 ;  so- 
cieties for,  89 ;  laws  for,  91. 

Provident  poor,  in. 

Public  distributions  of  relief,  147. 

Publicity  in  charity,  demoraliza- 
tion of,  146-148. 

Putnam,  Mrs.  James,  76. 

Quack  doctors,  100. 

Reading,  133;  of  children,  86-87. 

Recreation,  127-139. 

References,  lack  of,  as  a  cause 
of  unemployment,  37. 

Relatives  as  a  source  of  relief, 
149-150. 

Relief,  policemen  as  distributors 
of,  19 ;  of  married  vagabond's 
family,  50-54;  of  drunkard's 
family,  61 ;  of  children,  76-77 ; 
and  hospital  care,  102 ;  of  thrift- 
less families,  112;  and  recrea- 
tion, 138-139 ;  a  valuable  tool, 
140- 141 ;  friendly  visitors  as  dis- 
pensers of,  142-145 ;  six  princi- 
ples of,  145-162 ;  with  a  future, 
153-154  ;  societies  for,  153 ;  in- 


224 


INDEX 


terim,  154 ;  compared  with  doc- 
toring, 154-155;  with  a  plan, 
155-157 ;  adequate,  157-159 ;  in 
work,  160 ;  in  kind,  i6i ;  dupli- 
cation of,  165  ;  church,  167-174  ; 
as  a  gospel  agency,  171-173; 
with  conditions,  190. 

Relief  in  work,  160. 

Relief  societies,  153. 

Rent,  156,  162. 

Richardson,  2. 

Saloon,  the,  57,  128,  133. 

Sanitation,  improved,  96. 

Saving,  35,  iii,  119-125;  un- 
thrifty forms  of,  iio-iii;  sav- 
ings banks,  118-119,  123;  be- 
gmnings  of,  119;  lor  burial, 
119-121;  for  sickness,  122; 
stamp,  123-124 ;  collections, 
124  ;  for  fuel,  124, 

School-teachers,  79-80. 

Scott,  2. 

Seasonal  occupations,  36. 

Self-help,  resources  for,  190. 

Self-sustaining  families,  193. 

Sentimental  charity,  4. 

Settlements,  5,  8,  108. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  10. 

Sham  homes,  46. 

Sick  benefits,  122. 

Sickness,  as  a  cause  of  poverty, 
95-96;  outside  hospitals,  103- 
104;  facts  needed  in  helping, 
186-188. 

Smith,  Miss  Frances,  181. 

Smith,  Miss  Zilpha  D.,  36,  58,  79, 
142. 

Social  classes,  10-12. 

Social  history  of  family,  facts 
needed  in,  187. 

Social  service,  5. 

Soup  kitchens,  148-149. 

Sources  of  relief,  natural,  149- 
150;  relief  societies,  150;  pub- 


lic outdoor  reUef,  151 ;  multi- 
plication of,  152-153. 

Spasmodic  charity,  191. 

Spencer,  Mrs.  Anna  Garlin,  81. 

Spending,  m,  112,  125. 

Stamp  savings,  123-124. 

Strikes,  31-32. 

Study,  supplementary  to  experi- 
ence, 15 ;  of  charity  in  theolog- 
ical seminaries,  178. 

Suggestion,  power  of,  18,  71-72. 

Suggestions  about  visiting  not  all 
applicable  to  one  family,  179. 

Summer  visiting,  185. 

Sunday-schools,  multiplication  of, 
87-88,  168,  177. 

Sympathy  and  sentimentality,  71. 

Tact,  14. 

Tammany  Hall's  charity,  20. 

Tenements,  unsanitary,  96. 

Thanet,  Octave,  3. 

Theological  seminaries,  course  of 

charitable  instruction  in,  178. 
Thomas,  Theodore,  135-137. 
Thrift,  108-112;  and  wages,  109; 

includes    spending,     iio-iii ; 

divides    the    poor    into   three 

classes,  111-112. 
Thriftless,  the,  109-110,  156. 
Trade-unions,  30,  32. 
Training  of  charity  workers,  life 

the  best  school  for  the,  14,  145, 

181-182;    common    sense    in, 

187;  economic  questions  in,  29. 

Undertakers  and  industrial  insur- 
ance, 121. 

Unemployed,  in  place  of  strikers, 
31-32;  number  of,  33;  treat- 
ment of,  34. 

Unemployment,  causes  of,  33-40. 

University  extension,  137. 

Unsanitary  surroundings,  96-97; 
tenements,  96. 


INDEX 


225 


Unthrifty  forms  of  saving,  110- 

III. 
Unworthy  not  a  descriptive  term 

as  applied  to  the  poor,  154. 
Usury,  115-118. 

Vagabonds,  married,  47-57,  93, 
146,  158,  164,  202-215. 

Ventilation,  97-98. 

Visiting,  continuous,  182-185 ;  il- 
lustrations of  continuous,  197- 
215  ;  patience  in,  182-183,  200 ; 
illustrations  of  successful,  197- 
202,  207-215  ;  in  summer,  185. 
See  also  Friendly  visiting. 


Wants,  social  value  of  varied,  127. 
Warner,  A.  G.,  33,  95. 
Wayward  children,  83-86;  girls, 

216-218. 
Widows    with    children,    73-74, 

158-159,  20I-202. 

Window-gardening,  131-132. 
Winter  not  the  only  season  for 

charitable  work,  184. 
Wolcott,  Mrs.  Roger,  70. 
Women  as  homemakers,  64-75 ; 

as  breadwinners,  72-74. 
Work    history    of   family,    facts 

needed  in,  187-188. 
Worthy  and  unworthy,  154. 


ECONOMICS. 


BY 


EDWARD  THOMAS  DEVINE,  Ph.D., 

General  Secretary  of  The  Charity  Organization  Society  of  the  City  of 
New   York ;    Sometime  Fellow  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania;  and  Staff  Lecturer  of  the  American  Society 
for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching. 


i6ino.    Cloth.    $i.oo,  net. 


"Long  experience  in  the  popular  exposition  of  the 
principles  of  political  economy  has  given  Dr.  Edward 
Thomas  Devine  peculiar  qualifications  for  the  preparation 
of  a  text-book  upon  this  subject,  and  his  recently  pub- 
lished '  Economics '  is  an  excellent  book  of  its  kind.  It 
may  be  warmly  recommended."  —  Dial. 

"  It  is  a  lucid  and  entertaining  exposition  of  the  sub- 
ject."—  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat. 

"  Every  young  man  and  woman  on  the  verge  of  the  real 
life  that  comes  with  gaining  their  majority  should  read  a 
good  work  on  this  subject,  and  we  could  recommend  no 
better  than  this  particular  volume."  —  Iowa  State  Register. 

"Mr.  Devine's  will  undoubtedly  be  found  a  handbook 
suited  to  its  purpose."  —  Milwaukee  Sentinel. 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY, 

QQ  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


MUNICIPAL   PROBLEMS. 


FRANK  J.  GOODNOW,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Administrative  Law,  Columbia  University 
in  the  City  of  New  York. 


Cloth.    i6mo.    $1.50,  net. 


COMMENTS. 

"We  question  if  any  other  book  before  has  achieved 
quite  the  important  service  to  what  may  be  termed 
theoretic  municipalism.  .  .  .  One  that  all  those  inter- 
ested in  municipal  matters  should  read.  .  .  .  Moderate 
in  tone,  sound  in  argument,  and  impartial  in  its  conclu- 
sions, it  is  a  work  that  deserves  to  carry  weight."  — 
London  Liberal. 

"  Here  is  without  doubt  one  of  the  most  trenchant  and 
scholarly  contributions  to  political  science  of  recent  writ- 
ing, remarkable  for  analytical  power  and  lucidity  of  state- 
ment." —  Chicago  Evening  Post. 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY, 

66   FIFTH  AVENUE,   NEW  YORK. 


RETURN 

TO  O 

CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

198  Main  Stacks 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 
Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling  642-3405 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


«^AN  0  4  200( 


JUN  0  8  20Cg 


OET 


^i  0  3  2ooi 


FORM  NO.  DD6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY  CA  94720-6000 


\U«\/J.oJ.vr/-: 


p 


YB  0666u 


r\ 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 

i 


CQDblMbMD3 


/ 


